Duty endures
by Kalenath Shok-Tan
Summary: Who wants to live forever? Who wants to fight forever? The Tenno don't, but it is their calling, their curse. Their path, their duty. They have slept for centuries and now, evil has woken them once more. It will find, as always, that the Tenno are ready and willing to meet fire with fire. And worse with worse... This is a fanfiction. I own none of the rights to Warframe.
1. Chapter 1

**Waking**

As always, it was cold. He didn't really mind the cold. Ever since he had been initiated into the secrets, he never really felt heat or cold except as inputs in his suit systems. But it was always there.

_Tenno_

The voice was in his head and it was familiar. He groaned a little, still mostly asleep. What was it THIS time? Another pirate band? A self styled dictator whose grandiose dreams threatened all of the solar system? Or was it something worse? He remembered the war.

He had been born human. He had been raised by a loving family. His father had been strict, but fair. His mother had loved to sing. His siblings, ever inventive, clever and funny... Gone. All of them, in a wave of destruction that had torn through the habitat that his family had called home. A wandering ship had found him, the only survivor. Fourteen years old and alone. He hadn't been hurt, but... It had taken two years for people to coax him into speech again. Even now, so many centuries later, he was laconic to the extreme. He never used two words when one would suffice.

He had wanted to fight, but humans simply were not capable of fighting in the environments that the wars of the day occurred in. So when head reached the age of majority, he had gone looking for the legends. Hunting the myths. Seeking the Tenno. For three years, he had sought the Tenno. He had searched every planet in the solar system as carefully as he could. Of course, he had been wary. There WAS a war on after all, and both sides tended to shoot first and not ask questions later. Then his ship was attacked.

He didn't remember it all. He remembered fear, pain, anger... He remembered trying to fight, but his weapons were useless. He remembered the laugh of the enemy soldier as the scum stood over him, weapon poised to end his life. He hadn't shut his eyes, he wanted to see the eyes of the one who killed him so he had seen it happen. One moment, the enemy soldier had been laughing and aiming, the next he had been dead. Utterly silent, a long metal rod had come from nowhere and pinned the enemy soldier to the wall. Later he had found out the rod had been something called an 'arrow'. He even learned how to use the weapon that fired it, an ancient device called a 'bow'. The Tenno had appeared, a ghostly form that danced through the enemy ranks. One Tenno, half a hundred enemy. Not even close to even odds. The enemy soldiers had no chance. The fight didn't last long. In just a few moments, nothing but corpses were left and the Tenno was looking at him. He remembered looking for emotion on the alien face, not realizing it was a helmet.

"You seek the Tenno." The warrior had asked. The voice had been neutral, but had the hint of something feminine.

"I do." He had replied.

"Why?" The Tenno sounded calm and sure. He had envied that.

"At first I sought vengeance. Now I seek justice." He had replied simply and honestly. Lying to Tenno didn't work by all accounts. How naive he had been. How...silly. How idealistic.

"Justice?" The Tenno had replied, sounding almost amused. "You think Tenno are forces of _justice?"_

"No." He had replied. "But you do what must be done." He remembered pausing and then speaking again. "I believe I have been...called to your path." At _that_, the alien warrior had stiffened.

"You do not know of what you speak, human child." The Tenno had replied evenly. "For child you are still."

"I know." He had said. "But I want to learn." The Tenno had looked at him for a long time, and then it had turned to go. His heart had crumpled in his chest, but then it had spoken.

"Follow."

He had. He had followed the Tenno onto another ship. A smaller ship. Just looking at it, it was light, fast and highly maneuverable. The cryo pod that the Tenno had led him too had looked like a coffin. He had been afraid of it, but had laid down inside without protest. He still remembered the Tenno's parting words, all these centuries later.

"We will meet again."

But they hadn't. Centuries had passed. He had learned so much, about so many things, it blurred. The training was relentless. The fighting actually seemed easier in many respects. He had...

_Tenno_

The voice sounded in his skull again and he made a noise of acknowledgement.

_I am here._ He replied in the way of his kind. He could tell the cryo systems were powering down. He started his own diagnostic checks as a matter of course. One did not assume that the warframe that one inhabited had survived undamaged, even ensconced in a cryo pod, on a small Tenno starship hidden in the vastness of space, there was danger.

_You are needed._ Did he know the female voice? He had met so many over the centuries that like much, it blurred. _There is danger. You are called._

_We answer the call._ He replied in ancient benediction. _We are Tenno._ He did not ask how long he had been asleep. It likely wouldn't have meant anything to him anyway. Time lost all meaning when one spent so long asleep. _Where?_

He wasn't asking where he was. No, he was asking where to go. Every time he woke, he had to do this all over again. Learn to be who and what he was again. He was good at it, but it was still a pain. A quick flip of mental switches brought up a readout of what weapons he had available. As he perused it, a mental wince rang through him. It seemed that while his warframe hadn't taken any damage during his long sleep, his on ship armory hadn't been so fortunate. His weapons... What was left of them had been recycled. He sighed mentally and ordered his ship to fabricate basic gear. A Laton pistol, a Braton rifle and a Skana sword were not great, but they would suffice until he could scavenge the raw materials to make better gear. It wasn't nearly the first time this had happened. Once he had woken and there had been a _hole_ in his warframe. A micro meteor had torn through it only a little bit before he had woken, not enough time for the self repair functions to take effect. The other Tenno had ribbed him mercilessly about the hole in his arm even after it had vanished. But it hadn't affected his fighting.

_Status?_ The feminine voice asked.

_Warframe green_ He replied. _Weapons red. Correcting._

_Understood._ The feminine voice said calmly. _The situation is complex._

_When is it ever NOT?_ The now awake Tenno asked sourly. _Destination?_

_Mercury._ The feminine voice replied. _I am the Lotus, I am your guide._

_I remember._ The Tenno replied as he keyed his ship's systems to head for the planet closest to the star that his ancestors had called Sol. The Lotus, or someone with that name anyway, had been there every time he had woken. He didn't know -or care- if it was the same being. It wasn't germane. _Who is the enemy?_

_There are several._ The Lotus replied calmly. _The ones you will face immediately are called the Grinneer._

_Intelligence? _He asked as he looked over his meager supplies.

_They have amassed a huge army of genetically engineered troops. Their soldiers are heavily armored and well trained._ The Lotus sounded uneasy, a first in his experience. _They are a match for you in sheer numbers at the very least._

_We will prevail _The Tenno intoned. _We are Tenno. How many others?_ Silence answered him and he paused. _How many other Tenno have you contacted?_

_The call has gone out and others are responding. _The Lotus replied. _We may need all of them._

_It's THAT bad? _The Tenno asked incredulously.

_The Grinneer are only one of several threats currently. A techo-organic virus has claimed many habitats and ships and a large corporation called Corpus has claimed as many. A three way war has erupted. _ The Lotus said sadly. _The people of this system are woefully unprepared for such savagery_

_We are. _The Tenno replied. _I will arrive at Mercury within the hour. Orders?_

_The Grineer are mining._ The Lotus said evenly._ They seek Orokin technology._

_Are they INSANE? _The Tenno snapped. _Never mind. They have to be stopped. _When next he spoke, it was aloud and in his mind. "Excalibur online."

"Acknowledged, Excalibur." The Lotus responded formally. "Welcome back."


	2. Chapter 2

**Allies**

It was downright embarrassing. All the fighting, running, shooting, slicing... All of the massive -not to mention UGLY- enemy forces he had faced and what had felled him? Not a blast from a gun or a blow from a fist or shock prod. A door. A fracking door! A laser barrier that activated just as he was passing a door. He had seen green and then everything had gone black. All the enemy on that level had been down, he had been moving on. Too hurried? His teachers would be so annoyed with him for losing situational awareness. Almost as annoyed as he was with himself.

Being knocked unconscious was no stranger. But waking up in a cell, stripped of his warframe and anything that might get him _out_ of said cell. That was humiliating. All he could do was sit and wait. The irate voice on the com that bleated at him he ignored. Lock him up, they could. Make him talk? Not hardly. Tenno did not speak aloud in the field. If one did not speak, one could not let out any information. When they absolutely _had_ to communicate, they used short range ultra secure com units. They always used sound dampeners to hush their voices when they used those to, so silence was their hallmark. It always amused him that people feared Tenno for the fact that they did not speak. They didn't need to. Years -centuries even- of working alone for in small groups had taught the Tenno how to read each other without the need for easily overheard oral communication. So he was silent. But he was afraid.

That was no dishonor. Fear was not a bad thing, in and of itself. He did not fear pain, or even death. He had known pain most of his life as a Tenno. What he feared was that his kin would try to rescue him. How many would be hurt or even killed in the process? He hated losing kin. There were not many Tenno left now. Centuries of attrition and now the depredations of the Grinneer and Corpus had left their marks. He would fight, they all would, until the last breath left them. It was what they did. What he-

He stiffened in his kneeling position. He had heard a sound from outside the cell. It had been faint, but there. Years of training had honed his senses so that could parse data from his warframe's auditory sensors easily and quickly. What was it? Were they coming to take him to interrogation? That would be fruitless. Tenno were trained how to resist any form of interrogation. Anything from crude torture to sophisticated drugs and mental probes, they could and did resist fairly easily. More than one interrogator had been driven mad trying to get a Tenno to break. Every being had limits, but Tenno were trained how to die rather than let any information fall into the wrong hands. Not that he knew much. Which was intentional. What he did not know, he could not divulge. His warframe connected directly to his ship and most of the sensitive data was stored aboard that. He smiled silently. Tenno ships were small, fast and highly maneuverable. Not to mention they were practically invisible to most modern sensor systems. Each ship had a small living area, which Tenno rarely used. Most preferred to stay in their warframes while in transit. The discomfort was minimal and-

There it was again! The sound. What _was_ that? He couldn't identify it. Then he stiffened more. Someone was keying the console outside, The beeps were distinctive. He did not move, he knew he was under observation. But internally, he was preparing. No one sane entered a cell with a Tenno unprepared. It was a quick route to a painful death. One of his teachers had put it best. 'No tool is dangerous in and of itself. Only the being _behind_ the tool makes it dangerous.' Tools such as warframes, swords, pistols... What he would give for a pistol... He did not look up as the door hissed open, but then his head jerked up as movement registered and a familiar form entered the cell. Another Tenno!

He didn't know her. Did he? She wore a Trinity frame and the colors were not familiar. A mix of blue and white, appropriate for a healer. She made a quick gesture and he rose to stand in front of her, clad only in his clear under suit. Nudity did not bother him. It hadn't for a long, long time. He stood while the Trinity seemed to wait, but he knew she was accessing the sensors in her suit, checking him for injuries. A hand came close and he remained still while it touched his side. A hiss and green energy poured from it to... He stared down at the neat hole in his suit and the burnt patch underneath. He had been hurt far worse than he had thought. He made a face as he looked at the Trinity and she nodded. Just from her posture, she was _not_ happy. A hand vanished to her back and came out with a small sidearm which she held out. He nodded and took it with a smile. Then she moved to the door, her rifle coming down from her back and he followed slowly, carefully. He was aware of how vulnerable he was. One good shot from a MOA or crewman laser rifle and he was a corpse. He froze at her gesture and then jumped as noise sounded outside.

What the? Someone had a Gorgon machine gun and was firing it like they had unlimited ammo. A shotgun sounded as well, and then both sounds faded as if the firing people had moved off. He paused and then nodded. A diversion. All of the security troops would be looking for the people who were being loud. As long as he and the Trinity didn't do anything dumb -like run under a security camera- they should be in the clear.

Indeed, as the Trinity led him through the bowels of the ship he had been incarcerated on, he didn't see another soul. _Someone_ was pacing them however. He caught glimpses of dark blue armor, but never a clear image. He made a questioning gesture to the Trinity when she looked at him and her return gesture alleviated his concern. Friendly. He nodded and keep close to her. Then both froze as the sounds of sudden combat came from nearby. What the hell? He spun to see a red and black armored form that had just materialized sparring with the blue armored form he had glimpsed before. The Trinity had her rifle up, but no clear shot with the two combatants in such close proximity. She cast a power on the enemy, one he recognized. It would heal every Tenno in close proximity every time they landed damage on the enemy.

The red and black armored form got a solid hit in and the blue armored Tenno fell to land in a heap. The black one raised it's sword to finish it's foe, but then the Trinity's rifle barked. He fired the pistol she had given him as well. He knew his chances of actually doing any damage with such a puny weapon were minimal, but he also knew from experience that any rounds impacting on a warframe -which this obviously was- were distracting. The red and black armored form turned, seemed to stare at him, and then... It vanished. It was there one moment, then it was gone.

The Trinity was in motion as soon as the red and black armored form vanished, moving to stand over her fallen..sister? Yes. This blue armored warframe was a Banshee. Green healing energy poured from the Trinity's fingers and the Banshee rose with a nod. She picked up her bow from where it had fallen and nodded to him as well. He made an interrogatory gesture and they both shrugged. The thought was obvious. Later. They would talk later, once they were safe. The Banshee started off, a tingle on his skin saying she had activate her sonar so as not to be blindsided again. She drew and fired in a single supple movement and an arrow sped away to impale a crewman who had stepped out of a door marked 'refresher'. An alarm started to warble and they ran. The Banshee went first, her arrows singing as she found and eliminated targets. Neither he nor the Trinity had time to acquire a target much less fire as the Banshee moved like water through the corridors. He saw an airlock ahead, the distinctive shapes of Tenno warframe attachment points beside it. He stiffened and then was on motion, slamming into the Trinity and throwing her out of the line of fire as a Railgun MOA leveled it's weapon at her back and fired. Directly at him. He heard a female scream of denial as his world went black.

* * *

**Some time later**

"That was dumb, X." A sour female voice sounded from nearby. He struggled to wake up. What had happened?

"What?" He paused. Where was he? He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the couch in a Tenno starship. The small, cramped quarters served any number of functions. Staterom for passengers, meeting area, training area for virtual simulation, medical ward... He was strapped down, various tubes and wires all over himself. He looked up at the Trinity and smiled. "Glad to see you, Trinity." He said with a grin.

"My _name_, X..." The Trinity said sourly. "..is Alicia. And that thing wouldn't have hurt _me_. Knocked me down. Stunned me maybe, but Serene was there and killed it just after it fired. We _thought_ it had killed you. Silly male. All that effort expended just to have you get yourself killed right before we leave? Really X, you know better."

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." He said with a sigh. "Wasn't really thinking, just reacted. I guess I am not that far evolved from my caveman ancestors after all. How bad?" He asked carefully.

"You are going home." The Trinity -Alicia- said with a nod. He stiffened, but she shook her head. "X, I _cannot_ tend what happened to you. I can't even put you back into cryo."

"_That_ bad?" He asked slowly, dazed. Only the absolute worst injuries prevented the use of cryo suspension to preserve an injured being.

"Yes, that bad. Your undersuit was designed to be vacuum resistant, not railgun resistant. It tore through you. Made a hell of a mess of your innards." Alicia replied sadly. "I am going to put you to sleep for the trip." She stepped close, but paused as he spoke.

"My ship?" He asked, dreading the answer. He stilled as she reached down and patted his shoulder.

"They tried to access it's systems and it self-destructed." Alicia replied sadly as he sighed in loss. His ship had been all he had really ever possessed. "I am sorry, X. I need to put you to sleep."

"I know." The Tenno known as X said with a sigh. "Thank you. Thank the others for me too. Any...losses?" He asked carefully as he hand came down to cup his head in a gentle grip.

"No." Alicia said kindly. "Sleep X. When you wake, everything will be better." He never felt the hum of power that put him into a deep healing sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Memory**

He knelt in place, his mind focusing on trained patterns. The small colony bustled around him, but he ignored it. It wasn't important to him. He was trying to quiet his unruly mind. It wasn't working very well.

When the man who called himself 'Excalibur' had woken, his injuries had been being tended. Tenno colonies were small to facilitate concealment, but self sufficient. The medical technology available at any colony dwarfed the gear that any Tenno starship could carry. He looked down at the robe he wore and against his will, his mouth quirked a little. No scars would remain. No physical ones anyway. The Trinity -Alicia- had done a good job in the field. His thoughts paused. Alicia. All Tenno had names. He had a name, not just 'Excalibur'. He couldn't remember it. It had been so long. He had been a Tenno for so long, but... not quite one. Oh, no one was rude or hostile. Indeed, many seemed almost awed. But there was always that subtle divide. He hadn't been born one of them. He wasn't truly one of them. He was...different. No matter how hard he tried, and he had tried for a very long time, he couldn't be exactly like them. He pressed that thought away and tried to focus his mind again. Again, it didn't work. He shook his head minutely. He could do this. He would do this. He would remember. He _would_ do it this time...

He became aware of scrutiny and opened his eyes to see a young Tenno in an acolyte's robe waiting a little ways away. The young male couldn't have been more than five or six and his face was grave as he looked at the kneeling man. No one else came close, the meditation space that had been set up in the main square of the colony was intended as a place of solace, of introspection.

"Yes?" The man who called himself Excalibur asked softly. The boy bowed deeply.

"The Master asked to see you, sir." The young Tenno said in a reverent tone. Excalibur's eyes narrowed. Was that deference for the Master? The acknowledged trainer and teacher, the leader of the colony? No. The boy's eyes were on _him_ and Excalibur stiffened slightly. This could not stand. He would not be the cause of dissent in the colony. There were too few Tenno colonies as it was. The mere thought of conflict erupting inside one was abhorrent to him. He had seen war for so long, been a tool of war for so long... Just the thought of war coming to this peaceful retreat was horrifying to the extreme. And if _he_ was the cause...? No! He would not let it happen.

"Do not revere me." Excalibur said quietly but firmly. "I am Tenno. No more, no less."

"But..." The boy started to protest but then stopped himself and nodded. He bowed from the neck, this time in simple respect to an elder. "If I have given offense, I apologize."

"I took no offense." Excalibur said with a internal sigh. Was he seeing things that were not there? Was he unbalanced? The docs said 'no', but _he_ wasn't so sure. Later. He would worry about that later. "The Master, you say?" The boy nodded again and Excalibur rose to his feet in a smooth motion, no wasted effort. "Thank you."

"It is my duty to serve." The boy intoned formally.

"_Our_ duty, young one." Excalibur said with a small smile. He bowed his head to a hand woven banner that hung nearby. On it, the Tenno Code was embroidered. The boy bowed with him and then Excalibur started off without a glance back.

As he walked, he noted a number of Tenno glancing his way. He ignored them. This was not his place. He was a visitor. A peaceful one, one who needed time and care to recover from his injuries, to regain his strength and train himself back to his exacting standards. Now he had. He hoped the Master had good news for him. What little he knew of the war with the Grinneer did not bode well. He shook his head minutely as he walked. He was a weapon. A tool to be use. No more. He would give his life if needed. He _had_ given his life to a cause. The Tenno.

As he walked the short distance from the square to the Master's quarters, he looked around a little. This colony was small. Less than a thousand souls called this self contained habitat home. He...could not. This was not his home. He had spent time in places like this, while the Tenno Elders had debated his wish to join them. The Tenno for the most part had been kind to him, a human foundling. Then he had started the training which had been anything but kind. Not having grown up in the Tenno, he had lacked the basic conditioning and skills that every Tenno took for granted. It had taken years for him to develop the reflexes to be able to run along -or up- a wall. Tenno had to prove they could do it without a warframe before they could be trusted _with_ one. But that was only the smallest bit of the training. So much to learn and it never really stopped. Only when one died did one stop learning. But one could forget.

His memory was faulty. He remembered his time with the Tenno in exacting clarity up to a point. It had been a mission, a bad one. The Great War had been raging. Massive fleets had done battle all over the solar system. He had known when he had joined the Tenno that he would be called to fight. He had...gone out... He could almost...

"My son?" The soft, concerned voice pulled him out of his reverie. He jerked and found the master of the colony looking at him with a concerned look. "Are you well?" The face of the old Tenno was creased by lines of fatigue, pain and worry. But the blue eyes that fixed him were alive with curiosity and concern.

"No." Excalibur admitted. Honesty was part of the code and lying to one's self was just as bad as lying to others. "I was trying to remember. I can...almost..."

He trailed off as the Master laid a hand on his arm. He stifled the immediate, trained response to break the arm that grabbed him and stood there silent. The Master smiled and nodded before giving a small squeeze and retracting his hand. Not that the Master wasn't capable of defending himself, far from it. But he was also used to dealing with Tenno who had been a long time in the field. Caution was warranted.

"It will come." The Master said kindly. "Or it will not." He said philosophically. "You were very badly hurt during the War."

"I don't remember that." Excalibur said slowly.

He didn't. He had woken, suddenly, in another colony. One much like this one actually. They told him he had been injured. That he had taken serious brain injuries. Injuries from both physical trauma and toxins. The wounds were so serious in fact that many had wondered if he would wake at all or be the man he had been. It was very odd. He had the strangest gaps in his memory. He could remember every instant of his training, but not the instructors names. He could remember his first family, but not _their_ names. He couldn't remember who _he_ had been...before. They told him the name, but it wasn't him. At least... He thought they had. His earliest memories after that waking were hazy, indistinct. That colony had been attacked shortly afterward and destroyed. He had been evacuated with the other wounded. At the time, he had wondered if _he_ had drawn the enemy there somehow, but the other Tenno had assured him that was not the case.

"You must not dwell on it, my son" The Master said with a nod. "The past is past. We must learn from it, but we must not dwell on it." Excalibur nodded stoically and then bowed formally. They were at the door to the Master's chambers. How long had he been standing there, lost in his faulty memory?

"You wished to see me, Master?" Excalibur asked calmly.

"I did." The Master nodded and led the way into his chambers. He knelt at his short desk and Excalibur knelt as well, the proper distance away. It was just far enough that a sword wouldn't reach either of them. "How do you feel?"

"Physically, I am fully functional." Excalibur replied with a trace of caution. "Mentally? I am not sure." He was not expecting the Master to laugh.

"Oh, my son..." The old Tenno said with a smile. "Who _is_?" His tone was devilish and Excalibur found himself smiling. It was easy to smile here. So far from the blood and guts of his life, it seemed...surreal. But at the same time, it was totally real. More real than much of his remembered life it seemed. Then the old Tenno sighed and his face turned melancholy. "If it were my choice, I would let you stay until you felt whole again." Excalibur stiffened and then nodded slowly.

"I am called?" He asked, his tone almost reverent. The Master looked at him and he winced. Was that too eager? Tenno who thirsted for blood were dangerous. To their enemies and their allies. "I..." He broke of what he was going to say and then slowly spoke. "I am conflicted." He admitted.

"Yes, you are." The Master agreed. "Ordinarily, I would not certify you to go back in the field as upset as you are." Excalibur stared at him and the Master sighed. "There is another reason as well."

"I want to serve, but am unsure how well I can." Excalibur agreed. "I made a stupid mistake and paid for it. I could have gotten every member of the rescue team killed and-" He broke off as something slapped him. As fast as Excalibur was, the Master hadn't seemed to move! Excalibur's cheek stung, but the Master hadn't budged from his spot. How the hell...? He was still out of reach!

"Stop that." The master commanded. "Stop dwelling on the past." His eyes were cold now.

"How did you do that?" Excalibur asked, curious. "You are out of reach."

"A being's reach should always exceed his or her grasp." The Master said evasively with a twinkle in his eye. "And I DID learn how to use a warframe before I was called to this posting."

"Let me guess." Excalibur said with a dry smile. "Loki." The Master just looked at him and Excalibur shook his head. "Never mind." He didn't want to irritate the master after all. "I will try not to dwell on the past, Master. But if I have been called, I must go." To his amazement, the Master rose and bowed. TO HIM!

"Be well, my son." The master said sadly. "I hope you find what you seek."

"Master?" Excalibur asked, concerned. The old Tenno did not speak again. He nodded to the side and a concealed door opened on the wall. A room appeared behind it and... A com unit. Nothing else shone in the room. Excalibur rose, bowed deeply and formally to the Master and then strode from the Master's chambers into the new room. He heard the door hiss shut and lock behind him, but he ignored that. He walked to the middle of the room, knelt and waited. He didn't wait long. A familiar female voice sounded in his head.

_Tenno_ As always, the Lotus was calm and precise.

_Lotus_ He acknowledged. _I await instruction._

_A new warframe has been readied for your use. _The Lotus said formally._ You will find it similar to your old one. You will want to train with it. You will do so en route to your new mission._

_Where am I sent? _He asked, aware of the fierce joy that surged within him and the need to clamp it down. He was no berserker. He focused his mind and it obeyed this time.

_The Corpus have found something odd._ The Lotus said with a trace of worry. _Their transmissions from that dig site have been...erratic._

_What did they find? _Excalibur asked. _More Orokin technology?_

_They say they found your sword._ The Lotus said softly.

_My..._ Excalibur hadn't know he could **get** that stiff. _What?_ He demanded. _**Which** sword?_

_We don't know. _ The Lotus replied. _This may be a trap._

_Only one way to find out. _Excalibur agreed. _Where? _He asked again.

_Europa. _The Lotus' voice turned cool. _ You will not go alone._

_I know. _Excalibur said with a wince. He much preferred to fight solo. Different styles of fighting rarely meshed all that well in his experience. Tenno were trained to do it of course, but they didn't always work _well_ together. He would deal. He was good at that. _ I will await the others there._

_Fare thee well, Tenno. _And just like that, the Lotus was gone from his head. Another door opened and he rose to start off towards his future, not looking back.


	4. Chapter 4

**New Hardware**

He didn't want to think. He didn't want to ponder the implications. It was enough that he had a mission. The corridors of the habitat gave way to an airlock and waiting at it was a familiar form wearing a Trinity warframe.

"Hiya X." The Tenno named Alicia nodded at him as he stopped short. She laughed at his expression. It was totally unfair, he couldn't see HERS through the helmet, but she could see his. "What? You didn't think we were going to take the colony healers' word for your health, did you?"

"And you need to fit me to a new warframe." Excalibur replied calmly, refusing to be baited.

"Oh, X..." The healer female said with a sigh. "Lighten up, already!" She complained. "It's been six weeks. I was worried about you."

"Your care was and is appreciated." Excalibur said with a nod. "You are the reason I survived to be healed."

"Yeah, well..." For once, the ebullient healer was somber. "I did what I could." Something in her tone called to him, called to something in him. He didn't understand it, so he did as he always did when faced by emotions he didn't understand. He ignored it. "I wish I could have done more." She said quietly. Something old in him was spurred to take action.

"Alicia..." Excalibur said, taking a step closer to touch her on her armored sleeve. "What happened to me wasn't your fault. It happened a long time ago. It can't be fixed." He stepped back as she stared at him. He was unsure if he had transgressed.

"You don't know that." Was she crying? No. It couldn't be. "You can't know that."

"No." Excalibur agreed. "But I am going to quote the master of the colony here. 'We must not dwell on the past'." He smiled at her. "We have enough problems with the present and immediate future, no?"

"You know..." Alicia said reflectively. "I think that is the first time I have seen you smile. You never took off your warframe. Not even the helmet. Never relaxed. Ever your jokes were always serious."

"Alicia." Excalibur said in faint reproof. "All I am is a weapon. All I have is my duty. I lost a lot when I was hurt during the Great Plague. But this I do know... 'Only in Death does duty end.' I am not dead yet."

"Yeah." The female Tenno agreed softly. "But you are not alive either. Maybe when this mission is done we can...talk a little?" She asked softly.

"Let's get the mission done first." Excalibur replied with a nod. Something in her voice unsettled him and he wasn't sure why. "I _do_ remember getting fitted for my old warframe. It..." He paused as Alicia laughed, sounding more like her usual self.

"It sucked, I bet." The healer said with an exaggerated wince, visible even through her warframe. "I know I ached for weeks in very odd places when I put this on the first time." She waved at herself and Excalibur shared her wince. Warframes were incredibly powerful, had amazing defensive capabilities, and would sustain the wearer in all kinds of hostile environments without the need for such things as sleep, food... air. "Come on in, we will get you started." She hit the airlock controls and turned to enter.

"Right." Excalibur agreed, following the Trinity frame into the ship, then paused. This ship was new. _Brand_ new. It still smelled new. "Wait... What?" He asked as he took a step in and stopped.

"This is _your_ ship, X." Alicia replied, not stopping. "I just rode it here. I would appreciate a ride back to mine at the shipyard." She said with a nod, obviously joking from her tone.

"I think I can do that." Excalibur didn't know where the Tenno shipyard was located. Few did. The ship would get them there though, with no inputs from him. He liked it that way. All he had to worry about was himself, his... He stopped short as he came into the small room that made up most of the interior of the ship and scowled. "What is _that_?" He demanded.

The warframe that awaited him in it's rack was like his old Excalibur, but... not. It was the same supple armor. It wasn't as rigid as a Rhino frame, but then again, he liked to be able to move faster than a glacier at times. His old warframe had been fast, strong and capable of incredible feats of endurance. It hadn't been very durable unfortunately, because he preferred to avoid danger instead of taking punishment. This new set looked heavier. Part of that as the odd crest on the helmet. A strange gold colored circular thing sat on the front of the helmet and a crest shaped the top of the helm differently as well. Gold colored several spots on the frame and he shook his head as he walked around it, discomfited. He was aware of Alicia's scrutiny and he shook his head.

"I assumed my warframe was unrecoverable." Excalibur said softly. "But what is this?" He turned to see Alicia had leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "Why didn't they give me a new Excalibur?"

"That _is_ a new Excalibur, X." Alicia said with a snap. "That is the top of the line model."

"The...Prime?" Excalibur asked slowly. During his recovery, he had read quite about the status of the war. It wasn't good reading. There had been a bunch of classified reports to keep him busy reading, but some other tidbits had trickled in as well. He shook his head again. "I don't know. I didn't have the funds to have one of these made, Alicia. And that was BEFORE my ship and all it's scavenged materials blew up."

"We managed to salvage some." Alicia said with a shrug. "We couldn't stick around long for obvious reasons."

"Who am I in debt to then?" Excalibur asked with a sigh.

"No one. Everyone chipped in a little, X." Alicia replied softly and Excalibur froze. "You... You never complain. You never quit. Everyone out here has worked with you at least once. You help out every chance you get, you stay there covering the team when others bolt for the exit. No one can count how many of us you have saved during those missions. If anything, _we_ owe _you_. That is why no less than fifteen ships responded when yours sent out it's automated distress call."

"No." Excalibur said slowly. "That is not right. The code..." He broke off as Alicia actually snarled at him.

"You have been a brother to _all_ of us, X." Alicia said, her tone daring him to question her. "Least we can do is return the favor." She crossed her arms again. "You gonna be stupid about this?" He stared at her for a long moment and then sigh and shook his head. Alicia snickered. "Smart Tenno."

"I assume the ship's foundry has basic stocks?" Excalibur asked as he started to disrobe. Nudity meant very little to Tenno and he couldn't have anything between him and the undersuit. "I will need to rearm."

"A sword and pistol came with the warframe." Alicia said calmly as Excalibur started checking his undersuit. The docs had put him back in one as soon as he had been healthy enough. The gray suit kept him clean, fed and hydrated. It also provided a very limited amount of protection from injuries. Mainly the light looking material served as a buffer between his skin and the warframe's interior. It also served as an interface. Excalibur finished his check and sighed. Alicia nodded. "Get to it." She commanded.

"Yes, Ma'am." Excalibur stepped up to the back of the warframe as it hung in it's rack.

It opened on his approach. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, and then stepped forward, placing his feet into the boots. Each hand went into the arms of the frame and found the ends. He did not flinch as the material flowed over his hands, the odd sensations telling him that the material was covering each and every finger. It would cover every extremity before hardening. After hardening, only he would be able to use this warframe. Anyone else who tried... Well.. It wouldn't be pretty. He shoved his head up into the helmet area and closed his eyes in automatic reflex as the living metal flowed around him. He felt the back of the suit close around him and could not stifle a gasp as tubes went into VERY uncomfortable places. But the discomfort eased quickly and he braced himself. The physical adjustments were the easy part. This...

He screamed as pain seared directly into his brain. It felt like every nerve was on fire. Intellectually, he knew it was the neural interface of the suit adjusting to his own neural network. Despite centuries of trying, no one had ever managed to get a complete neural map of any individual. It changed every so often, even not counting injuries such as he had sustained. So each suit had to be set up for each user and as Alicia had said, it sucked. He recited the mantras that he had been taught, focusing on them to counter the pain. Focusing on anything but the pain. Everyone said that the integration process only took a few minutes, but he hung in that pain filled limbo for an eternity. There was only darkness and pain. Then, like a switch had been thrown, the pain died.

"X?" He heard Alicia's concerned voice come from nearby. A quick flip of a mental switch and he could see her current status. "Status?"

"Nominal." Excalibur replied quietly. "Running systems check now." He started the diagnostic and then paused. "How long was that, Alicia?"

"Four minutes, twelve seconds." Alicia responded, for once, not cheerful. "I am sorry, X. I know that hurt and I couldn't do anything."

"Anything you tried would have interfered with the bonding." Excalibur replied calmly. "As you say, it sucks. But why would you ache?" He asked, unsure. "I don't."

"You are not female." Alicia said dryly. "Our anatomy is different. It takes longer to adjust. I think the original Orokin designers didn't plan on having any female warframe pilots."

"That makes no sense." Excalibur said with a grimace as he finished the check and opened his eyes. What greeted them was like, and unlike, his previous suit's HUD. All the icons were in the same places, but everything was clearer, cleaner. He could see Alicia's warframe without turning his head, even though she was behind him. And the ship interface was... He paused. "Alicia, there is a small object hovering near your back!" He keyed the command to release the warframe from the rack and it dropped him to land on the floor in a ready stance.

"Yep." Alicia said, unconcerned. "I know."

"What _is_ that?" Excalibur asked, then his suit responded before Alicia could, displaying data on the object. It was a biomechanical device that floated on a small anti-gravity vortex and he stffened as eh recognized it. A sentinel. "Oh _no_!" He said, annoyance sounding. "No. No no no! I am _not_ taking one of those things into the field!"

"Yes, you are." Alicia said calmly. "You will argue, but you will."

"Those things make stealth a joke, Alicia!" Excalibur protested. "I prefer _not_ to announce myself before I am ready to fight." He had seen other Tenno with the things, and he had to admit, they had come in handy on occasion. But he had also seen several recon missions blown because the silly robots didn't know the word 'stealth' and opened fire as soon as they saw enemies.

"This is a Shade, X." Alicia replied calmly. "Not a Wyrm. This one is designed for stealth missions." He turned his head and the look he leveled at her was obviously visible even through the helmet. She shook her head. "X, this is non-negotiable. We nearly lost you." Her voice turned sad. "And that would be a shame, brother."

"I am not one of you, Alicia." Excalibur said after a moment. "Not really."

"_Bull!_" The other Tenno actually shouted at him. "Get off your high horse and listen to me, you stubborn male!" Excalibur froze. She was really angry. A first in his experience. She took his stun for acquiescence and continued in a slightly calmer voice. "You may not have _begun_ as one of us, but you _are_ one of us now, Excalibur." She said, her tone biting. He shuddered. She must really be upset to be calling him by his full chosen name. "We take care of our own, X." Alicia said, calming.

"I..." Excalibur couldn't look at her. "Alicia... I... I don't know what to say. I feel... different. I am not like the rest."

"Neither am I." Alicia said softly. She sighed. "X, none of us is the same as any other. We may wear similar warframes, but does that make any of the others who wear Trinity frames me?"

"No." Excalibur replied, confused. "But... Alicia, you don't understand. I screwed up. I put everyone's lives at risk when they came after me."

"And how many times have _you_ put your life on the line for us?" Alicia asked softly. "When I was hit on Mercury and went down in a heap, those Grinneer closing in, you came and killed them all. You got me back on my feet and held off the enemy until my shields stabilized. Then you vanished. I heard you almost forfeited your mission, you dropped the intel you had been sent for to save my sorry rear end. I lost situational awareness, got blindsided and nearly paid for it with my life. But you came for me. " Excalibur looked away. Her voice turned soft. "You remember that, don't you?" He nodded. "I am not the only one you have saved, not by a long shot."

"I didn't do it for gratitude." Excalibur said defensively. This was getting a bit too much.

"And I am pushing too hard." Alicia said with a sigh. "It's just... You make me so mad. The _only_ one of us who sees anything wrong with you... is _you_, X." She shook her head again. "Never mind. Get the ship moving and you can start your virtual training. I need to catch up myself."

Excalibur nodded and walked over to where an alcove waited. He leaned back into it and a series of quiet clicks told him the warframe was seating itself, connecting to the ship's systems. He punched in the command to go to the shipyard and then looked at Alicia who hadn't moved.

"There is another alcove." Excalibur said quietly, nodding to the side. Indeed, each Tenno ship had four, all the better to carry a full squad of Tenno on a mission. Each alcove also served as an airlock for warframes or a drop point if the target was on the ground.

"Right." Alicia paused for a moment as if she was going to say more, but then shook herself and walked to another alcove and slotted her warframe in place.

Excalibur shook his head, then leaned it back to engage the neural linkage and begin the age old process of learning the strengths and limitations of a new warframe. He hadn't had to do it for a while. But he hadn't forgotten how.


	5. Chapter 5

**Best laid plans...**

He was glad he was training. Something about Alicia had changed during the conversation they had. Oh she was still the upbeat, almost perky female he knew and liked, but... Something else was going on. Something he didn't understand. For all of his life among the Tenno, he had focused on learning to be one of them and then to fight as one of them. To use a warframe with skill and honor. Fighting was really all he was. When she said things like "But you are not alive.' it made him very uncomfortable. He didn't really understand her. Truth be told, understanding females had never been germane to his existence. He had wanted to be a Tenno, so he had become one. An adopted one to be sure, but still one of them. But that didn't change the fact that something about her had made him very nervous when she had looked at him before departing for her own ship. For the first time, he had hoped she would take off her helmet so he could see her face, which made no sense at _all_. What visual context could he get from an unshielded face? The ship seemed much smaller without her aboard to brighten things up, but he persevered as he always did.

The exercises, a combination of mental and physical programs, were designed to stretch his capabilities to their limits. He was halfway up a wall, firing at targets that presented themselves when an alert chime sounded and he was unceremoniously dumped back at the starting circle. He knelt just in time. Three other holograms appeared nearby all taking similar kneeling positions. In ancient times, the posture was called 'seiza' by various martial arts practitioners. Now? It was just a meditative pose. The fact that it allowed for easy access to weapons was a plus to the Tenno.

One of the Tenno who appeared was Alicia of course, the others he knew as well. Jean wore an Ash warframe and Li a Saryn. He smiled under his helmet. This mission was going to be a mess any way you cut it according to the intelligence reports he had received and been perusing while running the obstacle course. Multi-tasking came early for Tenno or they never wore warframes. He had picked it up after a lot of work, and it still didn't come as naturally as it could have. Having sneaky sorts simply made _sense_ here. _Some might not call a Saryn sneaky._ he thought with a smile. _But they don't know Li._

"We are all here." Alicia said simply. "What do we know?" She asked, her voice calm and quiet.

"Not much." Excalibur admitted. "That particular settlement hadn't been used since the Great Plague." All three of the others looked at him and he shrugged. "Lots of those in this system."

"It was here, wasn't it?" Li asked in her harsh voice. He knew the tone was due to a bad case of vaccuum exposure that even Tenno medicine couldn't fully heal and not arrogance. Far from it, she was about the humblest being he knew. "What happened to you?"

"Europa yes." Excalibur said with a nod. "But not this habitat. The one where I was hurt was destroyed." The other three nodded at that and Excalibur took a deep breath. "I don't know what 'sword' they may be talking about. If it _was_ one of mine..." He paused, thinking. Then he shook his head with a shrug. "The sword I had that day was a ugly piece of work, I remember that." Alicia and the others stiffened and he made a soft noise of dismay. "Handling a Mire is _not_ something you forget. Even through a warframe, the feelings were awful"

"A _Mire_?" Jean asked for all of them. Excalibur nodded and Jean whistled soundlessly. "Those things are _nasty!_ What were you doing carrying _that_?" He shook his head. "Who in their right mind gives a rookie on their first mission a _Mire_?"

"Desperate times." Excalibur said with a shrug. "I don't remember much, just thinking I was really going to need a bath after handling it. I..." He paused and the others let him think. "I wasn't alone..." He said after a moment. "Whoever it was handed me the sword. I..." He grimaced under his helmet as the memory bit faded. "Lost it. Dang it, this gets old." He said sourly. Then he took a deep breath and blew it out. "We are going groundside. A dig site at these coordinates on Europa." A representation of the moon in question appeared in front of them and showed a pulsing green spot. "A recon overflight showed power at the site, but no other signs of life."

"Enemy presence?" Alicia asked quietly after looking at the holo for moment.

"Corpus definitely. It's their signal and their dig site." Excalibur said with a sigh. "And then... there is this..." He keyed a sequence and the holo swept in until it showed an overhead view of what had to be the habitat in question. A very recognizable ship sat on a landing platform just outside the entrance to the habitat. A small transport used by only one group in the solar system.

"Aw crap." Alicia swore mildly. "Grinneer."

"Yeah." Excalibur agreed. He detested the Grinneer and all they stood for. Survival was all well and good, but honor had to have some kind of place. Not in Grinneer society. The only 'duty' they understood was the 'duty' of all others to bow down to them and be exterminated. The transport could carry a full company of Grinneer marines.

"But..." Jean shook his head. "The Grinneer and Corpus hate each other as much or more than they hate us. No sign of battle?" They looked over the holo of the dig site, but there were no blast marks, no burning buildings. Nothing out of the ordinary. They all looked at each other.

"No." Excalibur said with a nod. "And that makes me _very_ nervous."

"If this is a trap..." Li said softly. "What are the mission parameters?"

"Get in, get information." Excalibur said with a nod. "If it _is_ a trap, we egress, preferably without causing a stir. But no matter what, we need information. We need to know what happened here and why."

"Right." Alicia said with a nod. "So, we land and move in quietly?"

"Jean will lead with his bow." Excalibur said quietly. The Ash warframe nodded. "I am second, in dash range in case he gets swarmed. Then Alicia, then Li." The two females nodded and he continued. "I have no idea what we are going to face down there, but this is very unsettling. We get information and then we get out. Clear?"

"Anything that can take out a company of Grinneer troops without them shooting at anything..." Li said in the silence that fell. "...should be approached cautiously."

"Right." Excalibur agreed. "So silence and speed are the plan. Any questions?" The others looked at him and shook their heads. "Jean, a moment?" The females vanished back to their ships and the Ash nodded.

"What's up, Excalibur?" Jean asked calmly.

"Alicia demanded I take a sentinel with me." Excalibur said with a sigh. "And I have _no_ idea how to program one and I don't want it blowing the mission before we even start."

"They _can_ be a pain." Jean said with a smile in his voice. "Shade or Wyrm?"

"Shade." Excalibur said with a half hearted snarl. "I don't want to take it, but Alicia is so stubborn." He paused as the other warframe looked at him. "What?" He demanded.

"Nothing." But the other male was obviously trying to restrain mirth.

"_What?_" Excalibur demanded. "Is it going to affect the mission?"

"Knowing the people involved?" Jean asked with a grin in his voice. "No. You are a professional, so is she. Just..." The Ash shook it's head. "I am _not_ the one to talk to about this. Talk to Li. Or better yet, talk to Alicia."

"Jean..." Excalibur hated the whining aspect that entered his voice but the Ash looked away, obviously pulling up schematics. Excalibur calmed himself slowly and carefully. "I really hope to have an answer someday, brother."

"You will." Jean said, mirth gone. "Probably when you least expect it."

"You are making less and less sense as this conversation continues." Excalibur said with a sigh. "Ok, let's get this hunk of junk programmed." Jean nodded and pulled up a holographic keyboard. His fingers started flying as Excalibur pulled up a list of mods that would fit the sentinel and started sorting them. But then Excalibur paused as Jean spoke again, very quietly.

"You need to talk to Alicia or Li." Jean said in a quiet voice. "_Before_ we go in." Excalibur started to protest and Jean shook his head. "Trust me, brother. Do it now. I have this. I'll get your sentinel sorted for you." Excalibur could only stare as his holo suddenly vanished, pulled over to where Jean was working.

"Okay." Excalibur said with a sigh. He keyed for a private channel to Alicia's ship. When he did he was startled to hear something he never would have expected to hear if he lived to be a million years old. Alicia was crying. "Alicia?" He asked hesitantly.

"Oh!" The crying cut off abruptly and Alicia appeared on the screen, her face hidden by her helmet. "X? Is there a problem?"

"You tell me." Excalibur said slowly. "Why are you crying?"

"Because you won't." Alicia said with a sigh. He stared at her and she spoke a bit more harshly. "If you don't need me, I need some time alone."

He nodded, unable to speak and she cut the connection. He stared at the blank holo for a moment and then shook himself. That was totally unlike Alicia. Oh, she wasn't perfect by anyone's stretch of the imagination. But she was always trying to be upbeat and cheerful. To hear her sobbing hurt. It really, really did. He looked at Jean, but the male Tenno had his hands on two sets of holo keys and was looking at four different holo screens. Excalibur sighed and keyed for Li. When she responded, she sounded normal for her. The holo showed her helmet and shoulders.

"Yes." Li asked quietly.

"Li... Um..." Excalibur actually stammered, a first in his memory. "Something is wrong with Alicia."

"Wrong?" The female Tenno asked sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I just tried to talk to her." Excalibur said with a mental wince. "She was crying and hung up on me."

"Oh." The Saryn replied, her tone odd even for her. "I see."

"Well, I don't." Excalibur protested. "What did I do?" He asked plaintively. "Did I make her cry?"

"The short answer is yes, Excalibur." Li said sympathetically. "You made her cry."

"I didn't mean to." The male Tenno protested. "What did I _say_?"

"Excalibur..." Li said gently. "This is going to take a bit. You didn't say anything. You don't understand, do you? You were just a boy when you joined us. Then you were hurt..." Her voice was sad now.

"No, I don't understand. Please don't start crying." Excalibur said seriously. "_One_ of you crying is bad enough." He paused as Li laughed sadly.

"I am not going to cry, Excalibur." Li reassured him. "Although you two make me want to." Excalibur made a strangled noise and she spoke a bit more sharply. "I am going to say something and I want a straight answer. How does she make you feel?"

"What?" Excalibur demanded. "That makes no..." He broke off as the Saryn actually snarled at him. He froze he did _not_ want her angry with him. He had seen what happened when she got mad. It was...impressive. "Uh, she makes me feel good. She makes me feel special. She makes me feel... strange. But not bad. It feels... good... I think."

"I see." Li said softly. "Well... good." She sighed. "I guess."

"I don't understand." Excalibur said with a half snarl. "Why was she crying?"

"Because her brother was hurt." Li said simply. "And she can't help him."

"I have watched her hold a dying brother while he bled out." Excalibur protested. "There was nothing she could do. She cried, but not like that."

"That was her brother, Excalibur." Li said gently. "Not the man she loves."

"Loves?" Excalibur said slowly. "Well, yeah. She loves us all..." He broke off as Li coughed.

"No, Excalibur." The Saryn said in a kind voice. "She _likes_ us all. There is only _one_ person she _loves_." Excalibur froze. Li nodded in the holo. "I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but she won't because she doesn't want it influence you in any way. She loves you, Excalibur."


	6. Chapter 6

**Of Warriors and Warframes**

Excalibur was tense. These last few minutes before a drop were always a bit tense. But now... He could handle pre-combat jitters. The long bouts of training and long experience in fighting had taught him methods of coping. It was all in his mind of course. His warframe did not fidget, although his mind kept insisting it was. Alicia hadn't wanted to talk to him. She had flatly refused to talk to him. Jean and Li had both tried to talk to her and been rebuffed as well. He could tell both of them were as shocked by this as he was. But he was in charge and had to be sure of his team, so when he spoke aloud, it was a command.

"Alicia." He said calmly. A small holo appeared on his HUD, her frame looking at him. "You good to go?"

The Trinity frame nodded and when she spoke it was calm. "I am upset, but it will not affect my performance."

"Once the mission is done,..." Excalibur said quietly. "...we will talk. You and me. Maybe with Li as a translator." He couldn't believe what he had just said, but then Alicia barked a laugh and her voice turned a little more normal.

"We might need her at that." Alicia had a grin in her voice now. "I... Guys, I am sorry I was rude. I..." Two other holos sprang to life on Excalibur's HUD. One showed a Saryn's head and the other an Ash's.

"You are emotional." Li said with a matching grin. "No matter how we train, how hard we fight, we are still baseline human. We still get emotions and a good thing too."

"I'll say." Jean agreed from his holo. "I find I prefer being _me_ to being one of those evil Corpus mechs."

"I apologize to all of you." Alicia said formally. "I am fully capable, X." Excalibur nodded. She wouldn't lie about that. He checked his readouts and spoke again.

"Thirty seconds out." Excalibur said calmly. [We are called once more to battle. For duty.] He intoned in a language that had been ancient before humanity left it's homeworld to explore it's solar system.

[For honor.] Li replied just as formally in the same language. Tenno always did this pre battle mantra in the odd language called English. No one else had used that language in thousands of years, and no one really knew why the Tenno used it for their mantras. It didn't matter now, what mattered was that they believed. In themselves and in each other. Nothing else mattered.

[For the code.] Jean said in response.

[For family.] Alicia continued the age old mantra.

[For the Tenno!] All chorused. [Death to our enemies!] They finished and then silence took over. They wouldn't speak again, barring emergencies, until the mission was done.

The whine of the ship's engines changed and Excalibur braced himself. It always came a shock, even when he was expecting it, when the clamps released his frame and he fell to land on his feet on a planetary surface. It was instinctive to roll in mid air and land on his feet. He had done this so many times, both in training and in actual combat conditions. He had done it under fire and during quiet. He had done it in broad daylight and darkest night. He felt rather than heard three thumps that announced his kin had arrived. The ship arched away smoothly and vanished into the distance. It was dark, but not much. He remembered the light of Jupiter being a lot brighter than any star ever could be. That hadn't changed. But this place was still. It was quiet. There was _no_ sound whatsoever and Excalibur felt tension rise. He took a hand from his Braton and made a quick gesture before resuming his sweep of the area, looking for hostiles or anything. There was nothing. He felt the others fan out as Jean started towards the landed Grinneer transport. He was the best suited to find out if anyone was aboard.

Excalibur found cover behind some crates and watched the area as Jean entered the ship. A few nerve wracked minutes later, Jean appeared and shook his head. Excalibur paused. The ship was _empty_? Grinneer didn't do that. They _always_ left a guard behind. Always. Jean made a gesture and Excalibur nodded. The Ash warframe vanished back into the ship and Excalibur smirked under his helmet. The next people to try and use that ship would regret it. Briefly. It wouldn't be any of the Tenno and no humans would dare try to do anything with a Grinneer ship. So... Corpus or Grinneer. Either way, if some of them blew themselves up, small loss.

Li made a worried gesture at him and he nodded. This was getting to be downright creepy. Then he froze as Alicia's hand shot up and he made sure he was in tight cover as movement appeared in the distance. He couldn't quite stifle an exclamation of shock as he saw them. A pair of squat, heavily built things, with a larger, more humanoid form following them. Not that any of these were human. Well... Not anymore. He recognized the types. Two chargers and a Leaper. He knew the sound dampeners of his helmet would have kept the sound from betraying his position, but he crouched lower anyway. Infested. What were _Infested_ doing here? Then he went even more still as a recognizable form appeared near the infested patrol. The Grinneer marine didn't raise it's weapon or fire however. It seemed to nod to the Infested as it passed them, obviously patrolling as they were. What the hell? The Trinity and Saryn warframes both turned to him and he could almost feel Alicia's and Li's incredulity. It matched his own.

The Grinner hated anything that was not of their kind. Not that they liked each other much. They hated the Corpus with fiery intensity. They were waging a campaign of extermination against the Tenno. Despite all of that though, most of their ire was directed at the Infested. Infested were humans who had been exposed to the Technocyte virus. Many thought that the Great Plague had been the result of some idiot releasing said virus on multiple habitats at once as an act of terror. If so, whoever it was had likely paid with their lives. It was well known, if Grinneer encountered Infested, lots of shooting happened. So why wasn't this marine shooting? He shook himself and started forward slowly and carefully, keeping to cover as he went. The mission had just become much more difficult. Infested were _very_ hard to sneak up on. Add to that, they had some kind of group mind. If one saw you, _all _of them knew where you were and stealth became...problematic.

He raised a hand to Jean and the Ash warframe nodded and vanished in a puff of smoke. Jean would look for an alternate route into the dig site. As he turned back, he stiffened. Alicia was gone! She had been right there! She wasn't indicated on his map display either. Li followed his gaze and froze as well. Both moved slowly and carefully to where she had been crouched behind some boxes and looked. There was no sign of a struggle, which made _no_ sense at all. In Excalibur's experience, there was simply no way a Tenno was taken so easily, so silently. He scrutinized the area and paused as Li pointed at something. He shook his head slowly as he saw the telltale signs of a concealed trapdoor. Had Alicia fallen into a trap? Been taken unaware? Or been distracted and simply fallen and knocked herself out? He had seen that happen to other Tenno in the field, but somehow he doubted this was so simple.

_Dang it._ Excalibur snapped to himself. _We have to finish the mission. I want to find her, but we have to finish the mission. _Li looked at him and he shook his head again. _Alicia would take my head off, and rightly so, if I fail the mission before it even starts._ Li waited patiently and Excalibur made a gesture. 'Continue mission'. Li nodded and moved off, her posture unhappy. Excalibur wasn't very happy himself. But they had to find out what was going on here, and the more he saw, the more he suspected.

_Someone is using some kind of mind control on the Grinneer and Infested._ He thought as he moved cautiously from cover to cover._ Maybe a new kind of infested? Some kind of super Corpus bot? _Jean appeared in the near distance and waved. He made a two fingered questioning gesture and Excalibur replied to his questions with gestures that explained how Alicia had vanished and they didn't know how or why. Jean stiffened and then nodded, his gaze sweeping the area over the aim point of his bow. _Could they mind control us?_ Excalibur didn't like that thought.

Tenno were taught how to protect themselves from such things. Nyx warframes used mind control as their primary weapons so the basics were well known to Tenno. He-

* * *

A loud beeping surprised him. He shook himself and looked to the side where his sentinel was hovering. The sentinel was sounding an alert into his auditory apparatus. He stared around and stiffened as he saw Jean and Li both immobile. Standing as if they had been frozen in place.

_Oh no..._Excalibur thought quickly, then froze as well as a pair of familiar forms appeared in the distance. The helmets were distinctive.

"Three more." The voice of the Corpus crewman was...off. "We thought so. They deploy in teams of four."

"Not always." The other one said quietly. "Do not underestimate them. Stun them all and we can call for backup to move them." It reached for it's belt and came up with a shock prod. It moved towards Excalibur and paused. "Wait... Is this...?" Whatever the Corpus goon was going to say was cut off as Excalibur drew.

"No!" One had time to scream before both fell to the floor, piles of cooling meat. Sword fights usually didn't last very long when one of the fighters was a master and the others were not.

He moved to where Li was standing. Her posture was odd. Her rifle was at her back and she stood as if waiting for something. He accessed her warframe's systems. He bit back a vile curse. Her brain waves were subdued. She was asleep on her feet. If it was _anything_ like what a Nyx could do, nothing he did would wake her up. She likely wouldn't remember any of this. If his sentinel hadn't woken _him_...

His thoughts broke off as a two legged monstrosity appeared in the near distance. It was hard to say who was more startled, Excalibur or the MOA. A snarl forced it's way past Excalibur's lips as alarms started to wail and his pistol jumped into his hand almost of it's own accord.

_Take __**my**__ kin will you?_

He fired before the MOA could, his shot tracking to slam into the mech's boxy gun apparatus. That assembly also served as a CPU for the bot and it went down in a shower of sparks. He heard others coming and snarled again as a group of crewmen came running around a corner in formation. Before they could react, he blurred into motion. Before a normal human could have blinked, he was past them, his blade going back to it's place on his back and the five bodies falling, some cut cleanly in two.

"Tenno!" A loud male voice called. "This isn't what you think!" He glanced around quickly. His dash had taken him a long ways from his kin, he was in an open area and he could see many forms approaching to surround him. The voice called again, pleading. "Tenno! Please!"

Excalibur's gaze darted left and right, but there was no way out of the ring of bodies. But none of the Grinneer or Corpus were firing. None of the Infested were charging. What the hell?

"Tenno..." It broke off. "_Excalibur?_" It demanded, clearly shocked. "Oh my god..." He didn't know the voice. "Wait!" It called, but Excalibur had seen enough. The Tenno charged the nearest group of enemy, a squad of Grinneer marines. The voice screamed. "No!"

Weapons started firing, but he summoned light and threw it around himself, blinding all of the enemy for a precious few seconds. If there had been fewer of them, he would have fought. But there had to be fifty of various types of enemy in the area now. Too many to beat. Instead, he gathered power and jumped to a narrow catwalk near the ceiling. The curtain of gunfire that had sought him cut off as if sliced by a sword and the voice called again, trying to find him.

"Excalibur!" The voice pleaded. "Wait!" But he was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hide and slay**

Excalibur was moving fast. Instead of falling back, as anyone sane would likely do in such a case, he pressed forward into the facility. It seemed to take the enemy by surprise. At least, when he encountered enemies, they were solo or in pairs, no large groups. Automatically, he killed any security camera he saw. As long as he did not get predictable, he had the advantage. He was mobile and his Shade hid him from view for a few seconds every time an enemy got close. He would have to thank Alicia for that. That little machine had saved his tail more than once. The enemies he faced didn't have a chance against him. Then he paused as his ultra secure com fielded an incoming call and he went stiff as lights flickered around him.

"Excalibur, your time is at hand." The voice was unfamiliar. It was neither male nor female, androgynous. The Tenno shook his head.

_Stalker._ _Crap_

The odd being that the Tenno called Stalker was a mystery. Excalibur had encountered the being once before, when he had been captured. Stalker had ambushed and nearly killed the Banshee who had been escorting him and Alicia to the evacuation point. Stalker apparently made his cause the avenging of high level Grinneer and Corpus who had been targeted for assassination. But he wasn't apparently the brightest of bulbs. He always targeted one specific Tenno to the exclusion of all else. That had been what had saved the Banshee Serene when she had gone down under Stalker's blade. Alicia and Excalibur had distracted the being and driven him away. Excalibur shook his head. Of all the lousy timing. He had studied up on what little was known about the being. So he was not surprised when Stalker commed again.

"Your murder of Councilor Vay Hek will be avenged." Stalker said in it's odd tone. It was impossible to tell if the voice was male or female. Excalibur usually called Stalker a 'him' but that was just speculation and an easy description.

Vay Hek had been a Grinneer politician. Stress 'had been'. A team of Tenno, including Excalibur, had gone in to remove the man from his position. He had been abusing his power, using his position to 'remove' many of his opponents using the Grinneer military as his personal sword. He had been a threat to many across the system and -like many high ranking Grinneer- had even been experimenting with Orokin technology. One problem with Orokin technology was that it had the distressing habit of driving it's users mad. Tenno were trained to resist the effects, but no one else had the skill or training. Hek had been a tough fight, but when the smoke had cleared, four Tenno had still stood and the Councilor had fallen. Excalibur didn't always understand why the Lotus sent him and his kin on different missions, but that one had been different. Vay Hek had been a blot, one the Tenno had removed. It didn't really matter. Excalibur was Tenno, he did as the Lotus told him. She was... He paused. How _did_ he think of the Lotus? He had a few moments. According to most of the records, the Stalker was highly predictable. One more taunt and _then_ it would attack. He shook himself. The Lotus was the guide for the Tenno. She was always there, and always dependable. Some feeling of affection was probably normal. At times, he swore he heard an almost maternal aspect in her voice. Maybe he was just imagining it? Probably. He would have to ask Alicia about that. He shook himself and prepared for the fight to come.

He found himself in a corridor. No cover to be found, but then again, he didn't really want any obstacles. By all accounts, Stalker was a master class swordsman. Excalibur looked at each irregularity in the area, noting each and filing it away. The corridor was sided by a... Excalibur smiled grimly under his helmet and waited, standing in the middle of the corridor, his sword in hand. He stiffened as the lights flickered again.

"Your death comes!" A black shadow materialized not very far away at all. It raised it's sword, but paused when it saw Excalibur just standing there. Then it blurred into motion and Excalibur was in motion as well.

Faster than thought, two swords collided. Excalibur's gold sword clashed repeatedly with the assassin's black one. Parry, cut, slice, dodge... All the moves were instinctive, burned into muscle memory. Two blades moving at lightspeed, both clashing and seeking weak spots in their enemy's guards. A mistake at the speeds the two master swordsmen were using would be fatal, but neither made a mistake. When two master swordsmen met in battle, the battle was either over quickly, or it could take a very, very long time. This seemed to be firmly in the latter category. Excalibur might have had the tiniest advantage in speed. But... Whoever Stalker was, he was very strong and Excalibur found himself retreating a step, then two. Then the Tenno was firmly on the defensive as Stalker stepped up his attacks. Excalibur managed to connect with a part of Stalker's arm, but the blade turned on the enemy's armor and then Excalibur went flying as something hit him. He hit and rolled as he had been trained. Stalker was charging, but darted for cover as Excalibur's hand came up with his pistol. But Excalibur didn't aim at Stalker!

Instead, the Tenno fired off an entire clip from his Lato Prime at the long transparisteel window that formed part of the corridor of that habitat. The part that looked out on space. Most habitats had something like this, a place to stop and look at the stars. Even ground side, there were places like this, especially on small moons like Europa.

Stalker paused and then an inhuman scream of rage sounded as the window shattered. The sound cut off with dreadful finality as the air in the corridor was suddenly blown out into space. Excalibur watched without comment as the black armored form, flailing impotently and obviously screaming, was sucked out with the air. The Tenno activated his mag boots, made his way quickly to where he had seen an access terminal and hacked it. Armored shutters closed and the sound came back as air filled the area again. He knew Stalker wasn't dead. Tenno had shot the assassin, poisoned the assassin, burnt the assassin, had even cut him in half with an axe... The list went on and on. He always came back. Excalibur reloaded his pistol and put it away, drawing his rifle again before moving off.

_Not bad._ Excalibur thought with a sigh. _Just as good with his sword as the records say. Silly choice of battleground, but all in all, not bad at all._ _If he had taken me by surprise, I would have fallen. Silly posturing._

One of the first lessons Tenno learned was 'Know your battleground'. The environment could be just as much a weapon as his sword or gun, as he had just proved. He checked his energy reserves and sighed again. His systems were badly depleted. Perhaps one more dash, maybe a jump or two. No more. Time to sneak some more. He found a vent and carefully pried the cover off. Some Tenno just shot vent covers off, he found that wasteful of ammunition and loud. He paused as voices became audible.

"Hull breach?" The voice was filtered through a helmet. Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his own helmet. It sounded like Grinneer, but... off. It was female, but it wasn't angry. It wasn't screaming in rage or pain like most Grinneer he had heard. "What happened?"

"No sign now." Another voice answer. This one was a Corpus crewman. "Probably the loose Tenno again. Long gone now. Although _why_ he would blow out a window _here_ is beyond me. No troops or mechs were anywhere near here."

"Tenno are weird. I disagree with these orders." The Grinneer said calmly. Far more calmly than _any_ Grinneer that Excalibur could have ever imagined. "Why do we need to take him alive? It has cost us and will cost us a lot more." Excalibur froze and then listened harder.

"I don't know." The Corpus replied. "But the boss wants him alive. Orders are orders. Don't make much sense to me either, but we both owe the doc."

"Yeah." The Grinneer actually sighed. "I... I think I am..." She made a noise of discomfort and the other voice turned concerned.

"Are you okay?" The Corpus asked and Excalibur went even more stiff. Why was a _Corpus_ asking a _Grinneer_ if she was okay? What the hell was going on here? Obviously some kind of mind control. Or...something.

"I don't know." The Grinner sounded worried. Then she paused and her voice turned terrified. "I feel... Oh no. Oh god! I am angry again! Don't let me become what I was! Please!" She begged.

"Come on." The Corpus said in a very gentle tone. "Let's get you to medical."

"Don't let me hurt you." The female voice pleaded. "I don't want to be what I was. Stop me if you have to. Any way you have to!"

"It won't come to that, Nika." The male voice said gently. "Come on, let's get you to the docs." Was the female Grinneer _crying_ as the sound of movement faded? Excalibur followed the soft sounds of movement as best he could in the ducts and then froze as a new voice sounded.

"What? Nika?" The female voice was...almost familiar. "What happened?"

"I don't know." The female Grinnner was still crying. "I was fine and then all of the sudden I was angry again. Don't let me hurt anyone, doc! Please!" She begged.

"Up on the table with you." The other female voice said kindly and Excalibur pressed forward cautiously to look out the vent. What met his eyes was unbelievable. A female Grinner marine lay on an exam table, her helmet off and lying to the side. Her head was encased in an odd apparatus that pulsed with sickly green power Familiar green power. Orokin technology. A female human in a medical tunic stood by the head of the bed working controls while a Corpus crewman stood nearby, all but wringing his hands in worry. "Ah." The doc said quietly. "Minor imbalance." She said kindly. "Easy fix. Good girl..." She crooned.

"Doc?" The Corpus asked.

"Nika will be fine, Jos." The doc replied evenly. "Just a minor imbalance. The gene reconstruction therapy is changing your brain, girl." Nika made a noise of dismay but the doc was quick to reassure her. "You are not the first of our Grinneer to have this problem and you won't be the last. But it is easy to fix."

"Good." The Grinneer said sadly. "I don't want to hurt people anymore, doc."

"Good." The doc said with a smile. "The reprogramming is holding."

"I don't like who I was before, doc." Nika said, tears starting to fall again. "I don't like her at all. She was mean and nasty."

"Nika." The doc chided her. "You are still _you_. But _now_ you have a choice about how you act. You don't need to fight to survive all the time anymore."

"I was so scared." Nika said, closing her eyes. "When I woke and you said you had put the virus in me." Excalibur went cold at that, but Nika was continuing. "I thought I would become a mindless monster."

"Have you?" The doc asked kindly.

"No." Nika said with a smile that looked decidedly out of place on her face. "it is marvelous."

"I am glad you feel that way, Nika." The doc said with a smile that faded. "Our..newest guests are being a pain." Excalibur went still, listening with every fiber of his being.

"Tenno are strange." Nika said slowly. "I hated them, before..." She said with an odd catch to her voice. Regret? "Do you think we can welcome them?"

"We will try." The doc assured her. "But they are stubborn. The boss is talking to the first one we found in the detention bay. The others haven't woken from sedation yet. Stripping them out of their warframes is not an easy process for us or them. But... She just lies there. She refuses to eat or drink." Both the Grinneer and the Corpus hissed in dismay at that. "Yeah. If we _have_ to inject it, it hurts a lot worse and it can cause permanent damage. We need to be very careful. They can and will suicide if we let them."

"Doc?" The Corpus asked carefully. "Do you know why the boss is fixated on the other? The one who is loose? We have lost a dozen people in two hours to that guy."

"Many, many years ago, he was the first." The doc said sadly. "Our first experiment."

"He _what_?" The Grinner asked, as stunned as Excalibur felt.

"We were-" Whatever else the doc was going to say was drowned out by the clanking charge of a MOA as it came up behind Excalibur and saw him. He turned to flee, but the shockwave it sent out slammed into him, throwing him bodily through the vent into the medical bay to where the doc was spinning in place with an oath.

The MOA jumped down, only to meet a burst of fire from Excalibur's Braton and collapse to the floor. He spun in place, to see that none of the three who had been talking had been given time to move. He raised his rifle and the Corpus raised his empty hands. _What the...?_

"_No!_" The man screamed, placing himself bodily between the doctor and the Tenno. "Don't hurt her!" The Grinneer rolled off the bed, but... She didn't draw a weapon either, just placed herself between the Tenno and the doctor too. The tableau was broken when the doctor spoke.

"Excalibur..." The doctor said slowly, carefully. "Please... Don't..." Excalibur looked from the doctor to the Grinneer to the Corpus and back and his rifle didn't waver. "You have no reason to trust me. I hurt you. I hurt you so very badly all those years ago. I didn't... I didn't know..." She pleaded. "You have got to believe me! We didn't know what we were doing!"

"_Doc!_" A shout came from outside and a pair of armored forms ran in, weapons up.

"_No!_" The doc screamed as Excalibur spun in place, accurate bursts of fire driving the armored Grinneer back toward the doorway and cover. Excalibur took advantage of the distraction to jump back into the vent and flee. The doctor's screams followed him. "_Do not_ pursue him! Let him go!"

_What the __**hell**__ is going on here? _Excalibur thought with a snarl, then focused on flight as the recognizable sounds of Corpus mechs jumping into the vent were heard behind him. _I need to find my kin...Detention bay... She said detention bay..._ He darted off, his rifle at the ready. But his mind whirred with far more questions than answers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Reckonings**

Excalibur slammed into yet another pair of MOAs. They had no chance at all against him. Both went flying as his dash stopped just within sword's reach of one and the ending empowered slash cut out at the speed of thought. One collapsed in a shower of sparks, the other twitched feebly as it tried to rise. But he was in motion again. His sword cut down cleanly and removed the machine's boxy head apparatus. As he put his sword away and started pulling energy from the down machines to fill his depleted power reservoirs, he shook his head a little. He hadn't seen any living beings since his eavesdropping in the medical bay had been discovered, but everywhere he turned, he found more MOAs. It made sense actually. This _was_ a Corpus facility. Or at least , it had been. Every Corpus facility had MOA fabrication units scattered everywhere throughout it. It made life hell for people trying to get in or out of a Corpus facility, which was kind of the point. That he could understand.

What Excalibur could not understand was what else was going on. He was very confused. Having a Corpus and Grinneer -mortal enemies- not only working together, but talking together and seemingly concerned for a human? Ready to die for a human? That was _very_ strange. Until now, he would have said it was flatly impossible. Add to that, the human doctor had recognized him. Had called him 'Excalibur', like the first voice. He was sure he knew both voices, but not from where. What was it she had said? That she had experimented on him? When? During the period of time his memory didn't work? If that was the case, why did he remember her at all? _If_ he did. What had the doc meant about reprogramming? About injecting a virus? The Technocyte virus?

His musing cut off as a door hissed open ahead of him. It hadn't opened because of his proximity, he was well away from it. No one else was visible. He could see a standard Corpus detention bay through it, but... There were no guards. He shook his head. An obvious trap. All it would take was for a hidden camera to scan him entering and the automated turrets that every detention facility he had ever been in had aplenty would shred him in seconds. But then he heard clanking behind him. More MOAs. He was being herded. He checked his power readouts and smiled grimly. Time to change the rules of this game. He turned to the side and jumped to a vent that he had seen nearby. One slice from his sword and the pieces of the cover fell away.

"Wait!" The male voice from before called, and then sighed as he ran. "Dang it! How can we _explain_ if you won't stand still?" The voice complained.

"Do you really expect him to trust _anything_ we say?" A new female voice said and Excalibur froze in place as he recognized it. It the Tenno who had found him! She had rescued him and had taken him to the Elders when he had expressed a desire to learn the ways of the Tenno. He hadn't ever seen her again, had he? "I know I didn't." He turned and slowly stepped back to the vent opening, still in shadow. He looked down at the pair of forms that stood looking up at him. The male human in a lab coat looked dejected, but it was the female in the warframe that had Excalibur freezing in his place. The Tenno wearing the Nyx frame looked up, froze and spoke very carefully. "Don't move." The male human froze as well. "Excalibur. This isn't what you think. We don't want to hurt any kin." The Nyx shook her head. "I mean, that is why they kept me, persuaded me to stay, so they didn't have to. Hurt anyone that is."

"Is he listening?" The male human asked, incredulous. The Nyx nodded slowly and carefully, her hands still and in plain view. The human paused and then spoke slowly and carefully. "You have no reason to trust us, Excalibur. We disabled your team but... We didn't have a choice. If you had seen what was going on here before we could explain... You would threaten everything we have accomplished." Excalibur shook his head minutely and he slunk back into the shadows, his rifle at the ready, as a pair of armored Grinneer appeared to flank the odd pair. "No, get back! He will attack!"

"He hasn't yet." The female Tenno said slowly. "This may be the best we get. But... if he decides we are dead..." She took a deep breath. "We are."

"Boss." The larger of the Grinneer said slowly. "I don't like this. You are vulnerable. Without you... We go back to being what we were. Why can't you just mind zap him again?" He asked the Nyx carefully.

"It only works on Tenno when it takes them completely by surprise." The Nyx said with a shake of her head. "He knows I am here now, he is likely prepared." Excalibur did not move, but was reciting mantras in his head to keep from being controlled. The Nyx shook her head. "Excalibur, none of the others are _hurt_. We don't want to hurt you, or anyone else." She raised her hands in supplication. "Brother, please." She made a soft noise of dismay as Excalibur faded back into the shadows. "It's not mind control, brother! We are trying to make a difference! Excalibur!" She called as he pulled back further. But he paused as the male doc spoke.

"I know you are confused, Excalibur." The doc said in a strained voice. "Kori here was too. We didn't know what we were doing. We hurt you. We didn't plan on you two showing up when we tried to control the Plague ridden soldiers that attacked our facility. We didn't _plan_ on you getting mauled, or her being so badly hurt. You were both so badly hurt..." The man sounded abject. "We didn't know what to do! We didn't understand. We didn't even know _what_ you were!"

"He is still there." The Nyx -Kori- said slowly. "Explain?"

"Might as well." The doc said sadly. "You and Kori came to our habitat. She says it was your first mission." The Nyx nodded slowly. "We were trying to find a way to control the plague. We found a series of code commands that seemed to work. The plague went into recession in our test subjects. We managed to 'wake up' a few of the soldiers and they were lucid. But then more came and you showed up."

"You don't remember, Excalibur." Kori said sadly. "We were sent to exterminate the facility. We thought it completely overrun. We failed and it was _my_ fault..." She said quietly as Excalibur listened, part of his mind aware of other movement in the ducts around him. Quiet, furtive movement. "I went down and you came to my aid. You got me up, but you were blindsided and you were hit bad." The Nyx frame slumped. "I thought you were dead when I managed to get to my feet and..." She sighed. "I lost control."

Excalibur went still. Tenno were trained to control themselves at all times. The level of power each wielded was an awesome and terrible responsibility. A berserk Tenno... A berserk _Nyx_? The mind boggled at that. He had heard stories of what happened when Tenno went berserk. Kori started to cry. The doctor looked at her, his face sympathetic. Excalibur went still as one of the Grinneer laid a hand on her shoulder, offering comfort! And she leaned into it!

"I..." Kori said slowly. "I didn't know you were still alive. I didn't _know_ the virus they had put in the atmosphere was entering your bloodstream!" She said sharply. "I didn't _know_!" Kori said, beseeching the hidden Tenno. "I was so ashamed when I woke, when I found myself surrounded by the bodies of the enemy _and_ the humans we had come to protect... I knew what I had to do."

"Kori..." The doc said quietly. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was." Kori said sharply. "I lost control. The Code is clear on cases like that. You _should_ have let me die."

"I was trained to heal, Kori." The doctor said sadly. "I couldn't. You were scary, but you _had_ just saved me. And then you stuck a blade in yourself? I didn't understand, but I couldn't let you die. And then the virus entered your bloodstream and..." He sighed. "I am sorry, Kori."

"You have only said that about three hundred times, Daniel." Kori said with a snap. "Enough. Excalibur." She called. "Are you going to kill us?"

Excalibur pondered for a moment and then shook his head slightly. He did _not_ lower his rifle that had risen when the two Grinneer had appeared. He inclined his head to the Nyx. An invitation to continue.

"He won't speak, will he?" The doc asked slowly.

"If he does in the field..." Kori said calmly. "It means he will kill anyone and everyone who might hear his voice." She laughed a little sourly. "I am actually _glad_ he hasn't replied. I don't want to die."

Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his helmet. What was this? Tenno understood better than many how finite life's span could be. Odd that people who had lived for centuries, most of that time spent in cryo sleep, understood death better than others whose lives came and went like sparks. Tenno fought. It was what they did. This was...wrong. Kori was...wrong. It was subtle, but it was there. It wasn't what she was saying. It was _how_ she was saying it. Was _she_ being controlled? If so, how? The virus? He made a 'get on with it' gesture to the Nyx who nodded.

"Long story short, Excalibur..." The Nyx said softly. "I woke up with Daniel and his team tending me. They hadn't been able to remove me from my warframe. They were...quite stubborn." She said with fondness to the human who shrugged. "When I stabbed myself, the virus that Daniel and his team had created entered my bloodstream. They thought I was another form of plague ridden at first. After... After I recovered a bit... They told me you were alive, but that you had fallen on your sword. Dang it, I shouldn't have given you that evil thing!" She recriminated. "I didn't think it was going to be a hard mission and the Mire worked better than your Skana did!"

Excalibur shook his head. This was... It was both right and wrong. It made sense, the story. But... Something was off. Kori wasn't acting like a Tenno. Or... she was acting _almost_ like a Tenno. A Tenno in her position would have asked the Lotus for guidance and obeyed instructions.

"You had been badly wounded, Excalibur." The human -Daniel- said in a calm tone. "Your warframe armor kept the shot that hit your skull from killing you instantly, but the trauma was still bad. Then the virus entered your body through the wound." Excalibur shook his head and then, in a supple movement, jumped from the vent to land in front of all of them, his pistol in one hand, his sword in the other. Everything stopped as Excalibur spoke.

"You lie."

The human doctor, the Nyx and the two Grinneer all froze as the male Tenno spoke. Kori was shaking her head silently as Excalibur spoke again.

"I don't remember much of when I woke the first time, but I _do_ remember this." He said calmly. "The healers said there was _no_ sign of cranial trauma. No physical reason for my memory loss at all. Toxins and injuries from many types of weapons, but no cranial trauma. Nice try." He said, his pistol coming up, but then Kori moved and a shining blur flew from her hand at him. A circular thing with three blades!

_Crap! A glaive!_

He blocked the attack with his sword and rolled for cover as both Grinneer pushed the doc behind them and raised their weapons. The glaive flew back to Kori's hands and the Nyx too darted for cover. The doc hustled from the room, both Grineer staying between where Excalibur was and the doc. Then the door hissed shut behind them and locked.

Excalibur paused and then ran. Power flew from Kori's fingers, the psychic bolts seeking Excalibur as he fled. But the vent he had been in was suddenly full of leaping, howling shapes. Excalibur focused himself and then let his will leave him in a rush, along with most of his power reserves. His most powerful ability slammed everything in the area to the ground, all of the Infested falling and dissolving as the javelins' energy dissolved their very being. Kori was flung into a wall and she lost her grip on the glaive. It skittered away and before she could rise, a white armored boot was on her stomach, holding her down. The point of Excalibur's sword was at her throat.

"I am sorry, Excalibur..." Koria said softly. "It... You went down like I said, but I got you back up and we fought together. Then they stunned us. I woke strapped down on a table. They.. They put things in us... I couldn't disobey... I could hear you screaming and there was nothing I could do. I am sorry."

"You are the reason they know how to tap Orokin technology." Excalibur said with a sigh. Kori nodded, not moving. "You showed them how to use the cryo pods." Kori nodded again. "Oh Kori..." Excalibur said sadly.

"I resisted." Kori said softly. "I don't know for how long. But... It got in my head. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes it felt so good... I couldn't keep it out. I... Stop them. Please. They are insane." She didn't bother to beg for her own life. There was only one penalty for Tenno who broke the Code, willingly or non.

"I will." Excalibur said sadly. "Farewell, sister." He moved his boot off her stomach and stepped back as she rolled into a kneeling position.

"I..." Kori took a deep breath and spoke. "They are trying to make me fight, Excalibur. I don't have long... I can't hold them out for long. I have heard some of what happened to you after you escaped their clutches." Excalibur inhaled and Kori laughed mirthlessly. "Oh yes, you escaped. Without any help at all. You tried to free me and I told you -ordered you-to run. Half dead and out of your mind from the experiments and drugs, you still managed to get back to our ship and flee before they could access it. They made me bring them here, to another Orokin facility and put them in cryo to wait until the dust settled to start their experiments again." She bowed her head. "I am sorry I got you into this."

"Kori." Excalibur said kindly. "I chose my path. This isn't exactly what I wanted, but I _did_ choose my path." He paused. "I do have one question..."

"Anything I can answer." Kori said, bowing her head, exposing the vulnerable neck of her warframe.

"What was my name?" Excalibur asked softly as he raised his sword. Kori spoke a word and his blade fell.


	9. Chapter 9

**Tenno Justice**

"_Kori! No!_" A familiar voice screamed from nearby as Excalibur turned from his fallen sister. His pistol and sword came up in hand, but... The female doctor he had seen before stood in a doorway, flanked by the Corpus and Grinneer he had seen with her, all wore identical expressions. Grief. None had weapons raised and Excalibur paused. The female human collapsed to her knees, keening. "No..." She cried, tears falling.

Excalibur looked at the two beings he called 'enemy' and both remained where they were. Both had weapons in hand, but neither raised them. Both were staring at the still form at Excalibur's feet. Then the impossible happened. The Grinner marine dropped her weapon, the Corpus trooper did likewise. Both knelt on either side of the sobbing human, the female Grinneer laying an armored hand on the human's shoulder. The woman was distraught.

"You didn't have to _kill_ her!" The human woman said through her tears. "She was no match for you hand to hand." She went stiff as Excalibur shook his head.

"Not many are." The Tenno said calmly. That was the simple truth. He wasn't invincible, but he was very good. No arrogance. Fact. He knew his strengths and limitations and he knew that there were others who were better than him.

"Are you going to kill us too?" The doc asked after a moment. "She said you only speak when you are going to kill everyone who hears you."

"She said a lot of things." Excalibur said without moving. "Some true, some not."

"Don't hurt the others." The woman begged. "They are innocent of wrongdoing. Pawns. I tried to help them."

"You have." The female Grinner said softly. "Please don't hurt her, she is nice." She begged Excalibur.

"Nika, I deserve his rage." The doc said softly. "I was there. I hurt you and Kori. I didn't know, when they hired me, what they planned. It was insane, but... Everything was insane...The war, the Plague, all of it." She said sadly. "I thought I knew what war was. I had no idea."

"Not many do." Excalibur agreed. "What did you do to me?" He asked conversationally. The human stared at him, unsure and he shrugged. "No need to be impolite, is there?"

"I..." The woman shook her head, tears still streaming. "I guess not." She slumped. "I tried to do to you what I did to them..." She nodded to the Corpus and Grinner beside her. "I put a reprogramming virus in you, but it didn't work. It worked on Kori although it took awhile. It didn't work on you. I have no idea why. All it did was hurt you."

"Why?" Excalibur asked softly. "Controlling the Infested isn't possible."

"We thought it was. A matter of scale. Take a small piece of it, isolate it and try to communicate that way. Communicate, find our what drives them and try to subvert it." The crying woman said sadly. "We were trying to communicate, or so we were told." She took a deep breath, scrubbing her eyes. "We didn't know what you were. We had heard of you, of course, but we had no idea. Then Daniel said you would make good test subjects. I argued... I tried, but everything I tried just slid off him." She slumped. "I didn't know until it was too late that Daniel had been infected already." Excalibur stiffened and the woman nodded. "He doesn't show it, but he is insane. So am I." She said sadly.

"You are not acting like Infested." Excalibur said uneasily.

"I am heavily medicated so I can function." The woman replied softly. "I am not... quite as bad as most." The Grinneer actually hugged the human now and she smiled a bit. "Nika..."

"You helped me." Nika said slowly. "Can't you help yourself?"

"Maybe." The doctor said slowly. "Daniel wouldn't let me break the bonds between us. The..." She paused and froze as the mass as Excalibur's feet moved a bit. "What the...?" Her eyes went wide as Kori moaned. "I... What? But..." She stammered staring at Excalibur. "You are a..." She broke off and Excalibur nodded.

"Killer. Yes." He said calmly. "I am." He nodded to where Kori lay still now. "What I am _not_ however, is a murderer."

"I don't see the distinction." The female human said, her tone confused. "You are an assassin." She paused and blanched as she realized what she had just said. "I mean..." She broke off as Excalibur snorted.

"Yes, I am. I kill when I must. I do not do it wantonly." The Tenno replied. "And yes, what she has done -instructing you and your colleagues about Orokin technology- broke with the Code. It will probably mean her death. But _I_ am not the one to judge her. I am a soldier, not a judge. I have been an executioner, but she deserves the chance to explain at the very least. I have been given orders to kill specific beings in the past. She is not one of them." The man in the warframe said calmly.

"May I...?" The woman asked, her hands rising. "I... She is my friend. I mean... I like to think she is. She hated me for a very long time and I deserved it. But I tried to be kind to her. She deserved that and so much more for what Daniel did to her." Excalibur stepped back and his sword and pistol returned to their places. But his rifle came down and waited at the ready. "What did you do?"

"You are my friend Brianna. He disabled my warframe. I can't move." Kori's slurred voice answered her. "You should have killed me, Excalibur."

"You are not my enemy, Kori." Excalibur said gently. "You are my sister."

"Am I?" Kori asked, her voice so very sad. "After all I did?"

"You will face judgment for what you did, Kori." Excalibur said gently. "But not my sword until maybe after the Elders have spoken."

"What I did demands death." Kori protested. The woman, Brianna, shuffled close to the fallen Tenno and her hands were gentle as she turned the female on her back. An oozing slash on the back of the warframe's helmet was the only mar on the armor.

"What did you do?" The woman that the fallen Tenno had called Brianna asked, confused. Excalibur didn't answer and she sighed. "Never mind. Not my business. I have to say this, to you and to Kori... I am sorry." Excalibur looked at her and Brianna swallowed. "I am not asking for forgiveness. What I did to both of you is unforgivable. I just had to apologize. Even if you kill me..." Both the Grinneer and Corpus started to protest and Brianna raised hand to quiet them. "You _both_ understand when you are not emotional. I hurt them, and others. What I did deserves punishment." She looked up at Excalibur and nodded. "Just don't hurt them. Whatever they were before, they are my friends now."

"As I said, I am not a murderer." Excalibur said easily. "I only kill those I am ordered to or those who fight me. If you do not raise weapons against me, I will not harm you. If you _do_..." He trailed off and all three of the kneeling forms nodded. "What is Excalibur's Sword?" He asked and the doc stiffened.

"I..." Brianna shook herself. "It's a wide spectrum delivery system for the virus we developed. Essentially, it will allow Daniel to send the virus anywhere he wishes. It takes time to work, and is not pleasant for the recipient. I was trying to make it less painful." She bowed her head. "I just..." Her head suddenly shot up along with the Grinneer's and the Corpus. "No!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Excalibur asked, his rifle up and tracking, but not aiming at any of the kneeling beings.

"Daniel is letting the Infested loose!" Brianna said, fear oozing. "He is sending them here! To kill you!" Then she gasped. "And... me?" He voice was suddenly small. "I..."

"You are connected to all the others?" Excalibur asked slowly. Brianna nodded. "How?"

"It's a group mind. Ah!" She groaned. "They don't want to hurt me, but Daniel is whipping them into a frenzy. Stop that, you _idiot_!" She cried, obviously talking to someone who wasn't present. "Ow!" She said, clutching her head as she collapsed.

"Where are my other kin?" Excalibur asked, moving to stand by the door.

"The male and older female are in the cells. Sedated." Brianna said, her voice cracking. "The other is in the lab. Three hundred meters that way." She waved. "We were going to... No!" Brianna snapped. "No! Daniel, _don't_!" She screamed, her eyes far away.

"What?" Excalibur asked.

"He is going to infect her!" Brianna said sharply. "She isn't ready. She is too weak! It will kill her!" Excalibur stiffened and then nodded.

"I have a quandary." He said slowly. "If I leave the four of you here, alone..." He paused as the Grinneer nodded.

"Either the Infested get us or we run off with Kori and Brianna." The Grinneer, Nika, said quietly. "I don't trust you either."

"Good." Excalibur said softly. "We understand one another." The Grinneer didn't move and he smiled under his helmet. He was amazed, but he actually seemed to _like_ this former enemy. He didn't _trust_ her, mind you. But he was starting to like her. "Safest place is probably the cells."

"You really think so?" The Grinneer asked slowly. "If they catch us in there..."

"They are going to be busy." Excalibur said dryly. Then he turned stern. "If I have to hunt you down, it will go ill for all of you." He warned.

"Excalibur." Kori said slowly and carefully. "I give you _my_ word, I will not flee. I... You should have killed me."

"You are still my sister, Kori." Excalibur said sadly. "If the Elders order it, I will make it quick, clean and painless. Until then, you are still my sister" The he paused. "If you four are linked to the others... They know where I am and where I am going. I won't be able to ghost in." Stealth wasn't an option now.

"Daniel has them locked down." Brianna said softly. "I can't get to them. I..." She started crying again as she knelt by Kori's still form. "They are battering against the locks he has put on their minds. Their holds on sanity are slipping. The idiot is undoing everything I did to help them!"

"Brianna..." The Corpus trooper sounded sick. "Are _we_ going to turn on you too?" The Grinneer looked frightened as well.

"When you are this close, I can protect you." Brianna said sadly. "But... I... The others... No..." She sobbed. The Grinneer looked at Excalibur and then at the sobbing doctor before rising slowly and moving to Brianna's side.

"Do what you must, Excalibur." Nika said softly. "We will be here in one of the cells when you return." She bent down and scooped up Kori. Then, deliberately, she turned her back on him and strode to the still open door to the detention bay. The Corpus rose as well, taking Brianna's hand, pulling her to her feet and gently leading her the same way.

Excalibur pondered the oddness of the universe for just a moment. Here he was wishing a Grinneer and a Corpus troop -and a human woman how had hurt him so very badly- well. He shook his head and bent down to gather up Kori's Glaive from where it had fallen. He examined it quickly and then clipped it to his arm. He preferred his sword, but in the battle to come, he would need very advantage. He heard a howl in the distance and it was answered by others. He squared his shoulders and strode in the direction that Brianna had indicated. If she had lied to him...

He pushed the thoughts away. Idle thoughts had no place in a battle such as we was about to join. He focused his mind as he had been taught. As the first chargers rounded the corner to run at him, he ran to meet them, his sword in hand and a feral smile hidden by his helmet.

_FOR THE TENNO!_


	10. Chapter 10

**A Tenno's Life**

It was moments like this that Excalibur really lived for. He was no diplomat, no keeper of the peace, no healer. He was a weapon. He existed for one purpose and one purpose only. To destroy the enemies of the Tenno. Something for which he was well suited.

Another charger leaped at him and he spun away, leaving it to claw nothing but air. His sword licked out, quick as thought and the monster howled as it's spine was severed just behind the head. Chargers were weak individually. It was their numbers that made them dangerous, and the other forms of Infested that came shambled after them. Infested fought as swarms, the fast ones to tie him down, the slower ones to harry and kill. These Infested though...

"I am sorry." One huge one said as it threw a pseudopod at him. He dodged behind a crate and the tentacle missed. "I am so- urg" The voice trailed off into a bestial growl as the misshapen form spurred into a run at Excalibur.

Excalibur knew better than to let the thing get too close. Even though this wasn't one of the green ones -those emitted a nasty corrosive poison- all of the larger Infested were extremely dangerous in close combat. They felt little pain and normally closed with their foes in huge packs that left little room for his sword to work. The big ones were incredibly durable, with multiple redundant organs and thick, tough skins that would shrug off many forms of rifle fire. Let alone swords. The _only_ good thing about them was that they were not very quick or maneuverable. He backed up and paused as he felt a railing behind him. He was still making way towards the lab that the human doctor had told him of, but far slower than he had hoped. Part of him wondered why he hadn't seen any Corpus mechs or Grinneer. He figured he would see them soon enough. He waited as the Infested Ancient charged him. He waited, and waited and waited. At the _very_ last second, he dodged to the side, his sword low to catch what passed for ankles on the brutes. The Ancient slammed into the rail, off balance from the sword that had tripped it and then went over. Excalibur spared a glance over the rail and froze. The Ancient was hanging from the rail by it's tentacle. It looked at him and spoke.

"Stop... Him..." The ancient said clearly, it's voice a mix of beast and sentient. Then... it released its hold on the rail and vanished into the darkness below. Far, far down a brief flash of energy showed the fate of the Infested. Excalibur shook his head. This was _way_ beyond weird.

Friendly Corpus and Grineer he could _almost_ comprehend. Infested that talked and said they were sorry? _That_ was too much. He moved forward again, still on guard. He had to be getting close by now. He saw no more Infested. By his count he had killed about fifty of them, including the Ancient he had helped into the abyss. He paused at one of the quickly decaying corpses and activated his warframe's scavenging circuits. It sucked the pitiful remnants of power from the still form, hastening the Infested's rapid decomposition. He checked his power levels and they were still good. He started off again and boosted his speed as he...

He ducked from a run into a slide as the door in front of him exploded into flames. But... something was wrong. He could hear gunfire now and none of it was seeking him. He slid up to the door in a crouch and let it open before peeking past. What met his eyes was utter chaos. A heavy ambush had been set in the room just past the door. A Grinneer napalm, a Grinneer commander and at least a dozen other Grinneer of various kinds were scattered around the room, most in cover. If he had walked through that door all fat and happy, he would have been toast, literally. But... The Grinneer were firing at each other! Had Kori done something? No. Her warframe was disabled. He had cut the neural feeds. Nothing short of a full repair bay would get it functioning any time soon. And... There was no tell tale green energy anywhere he could see. He stiffened as one of the Grinneer looked his way, but instead of firing at him...

"_Go!_" The marine called. "We will hold them as long as we can!" Excalibur shook his head, stunned. The Marine fired off a short burst from his Grakata and snarled at the Tenno. "Are you hard of hearing, Tenno? That scum Daniel used us! Took us and used us! We will _not_ be used! Go! We can't stop him! Nika said you can!" Another Grinneer saw Excalibur and with an oath, spun to target him, but the marine who had spoken opened fire on full auto at the other Grinneer drawing it's attention.

Before Excalibur could even blink, something grabbed him. The familiar feeling of a teleport engulfed him and he found himself on the far side of the chaotic room. The Grinneer commander had pulled him. It was a nasty trick that the Grinneer had learned to use against Tenno who preferred to keep distance. But... The Grinneer commander did not attack. Instead, he turned back to the fighting, his gorgon barking in short, controlled bursts. He was _ignoring_ the Tenno at his back! What the hell? Excalibur didn't wait to find out what was happening. He took to his heels and ran. He had no business in this particular battleground. His armor was strong, but the sheer amount of fire that was being thrown around was daunting to say the least. A Rhino warframe might have been able to handle the weight of fire, his own warframe wouldn't even with the upgrades he had.

Excalibur passed other knots of fighting. More Grinneer. Corpus troops engaged with their own mechs. Infested locked in mortal combat with each other. This was just insane. He made his way past the fighting carefully and quickly, using vents, catwalks and other means of moving unobtrusively. Then he was past it all. Ahead he saw an open door and lab equipment. He moved towards the door carefully. This was a good place for an ambush. Then he heard it. A scream from a familiar voice. Alicia! He was through the door and concealed behind a cluster of computers before the scream faded. He saw the human looking doctor bent over a form on a table.

"There, there, young lady..." The doctor crooned. "Just relax. It's all right." Excalibur moved up[ but paused as the doctor spoke aloud. "I wondered when you would get here, Excalibur. Are you proud of yourself, Tenno?" The man asked sternly. "In less than a day. you have ruined centuries of work." Excalibur stiffened as the man turned in place, a needle in hand. "You confused poor Briana and her pets. It will take years to soothe them all to proper servitude again. You crippled Kori. Was it worth it, Tenno?"

"You are insane." Excalibur said calmly, striding from cover, his sword in hand. "You meddled with things that don't appreciate being meddled with." He took a quick glance around. No other beings were in the lab and that raised Excalibur's hackles. There wasn't much furniture. Mainly a series of low tables, one of which Alicia was strapped to. Many computer banks and one small desk filled out the furniture. Odd things hung from the ceiling and Excalibur skirted them. "Orokin technology is dangerous." Excalibur said with a shake of his head. "But you knew that, didn't you?"

"Power is to be used." Daniel said dismissively. "Your precious morals, your silly Code are hindrances."

"You just don't understand." Excalibur said sadly. "Without the proper training, Orokin technology drives it's users mad. Your goal was a noble one. Brianna said you wanted to find way to stop the Infested, to stop the Great War." Daniel paused, staring at him and Excalibur shrugged. "But you lost sight of that, didn't you? Before or after you held the artifact?" He asked with a sigh.

"You don't understand!" Daniel snapped. "You can't."

"You really think that?" Excalibur asked softly. "You think I don't _know_ the temptation?" He shook his head again. "You think we don't _know_ the lure? The draw to use the power unreservedly?" Excalibur snorted at Daniel's expression. "We are Tenno, not gods." He said calmly, moving slightly to get a better view of the sobbing woman on the table. "What have you done to my sister?"

"I have shown her a better way." Daniel said with a smile. "One I will share with you." He brandished the needle he had in hand, but Excalibur didn't focus on it. That wasn't the threat. "A little stick and everything will be better."

"You humans..." Excalibur sighed. "Always with your drugs and mind alterations." He shook his head again, his sword coming up to a guard position. "Haven't you figured out _yet_ that _some_ people don't enjoy being drugged into a stupor?"

"I don't drug them. Daniel said mildly. "I free them."

"From free will." Excalibur agreed softly. He sighed again and took a ready stance. "Go ahead, human, or whatever you are now. Go ahead and try what you will. It won't work."

"I am not going to do a thing." Daniel gloated. "Alicia..." Excalibur went stiff as the restraints on the table undid themselves. Alicia sat up, her face streaming tears. That was wrong. Tenno would not cry in front of outsiders. "Help me educate your brother." Daniel said with a leer. He handed her the needle and he pulled another from a pocket.

"X..." Alicia stammered as she rose and staggered forward, needle outstretched. "I... I can't..."

"It's all right, Alicia." Excalibur said with a sad shake of his head. "It will be all right."

"No..." Alicia begged as her hands came up. She was wearing bits of her undersuit and nothing else. It had been cut away in places to allow access to parts of her body. Her eyes were terrified as she looked at him. "X... stop me..."

"I will." Excalibur said mildly. He looked at Daniel who suddenly looked a _lot_ less confident. "There is a minor problem with using Orokin nanotechnology to transmit the Technocyte virus, human." He said in a vaguely patronizing tone. As if Daniel were a bright child playing with things he didn't understand. Which he _was_.

"You can't win." Daniel snapped, his hand dipping to a controller. Alicia screamed and her hands jerked to her head, the needle falling to the floor to shatter. Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his helmet but he didn't move. "She is mine. You will be mine!"

"No, I won't." Excalibur snapped right back. "You see, you have forgotten one of the most basic rules of physics." Daniel stared at him and Excalibur shook his head. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite _reaction_. You can't see or sense the imbalance, can you?" Excalibur asked, almost kindly. Daniel paused, confused and Excalibur sighed again. When he spoke again, it was sad. "You are lost, human Daniel. Your life is forfeit now."

"You can't kill me." Daniel replied. "Your swords and guns are no match for my power." Indeed a halo of green energy surrounded Daniel as he spoke, but Excalibur didn't move.

"I don't need to kill you." Excalibur said with a hint of melancholy. "You are already dead, you just don't know it. Alicia..." He said gently. "Come away." He held out his hand to the sobbing Tenno female and Daniel snarled.

"She is _mine_!" The human declared. "Alicia, stay where you are!"

"Alicia..." Excalibur said gently. "Who are you?" He asked. The sobbing Tenno look up at him and he nodded. "You can do it, Alicia." He encouraged.

"X..." Alicia begged. "I can't... Everything is so blurred. I can't see... I can't hear..."

"Alicia." Excalibur said, his tone turning commanding. "_Who_ are you?" Alicia looked at him, her eyes confused.

"I am Alicia." The female Tenno said slowly, then her eyes slowly lit on the warframe. "I am Tenno."

"Good." Excalibur said with feeling. "Come here. Let's get you out of here."

"Alicia!" Daniel snapped, his hand flying to his control. But then he screamed and convulsed. "What have you _done_?" He bit out.

"I did nothing. I didn't have to. Orokin technology and the Technocyte virus _do not_ mix, human Daniel. During the war it was set up so they couldn't." Excalibur said mildly. "Your meddling has and will cost you. You only just managed to get the Orokin reactor hooked up or this would have happened far sooner." He stretched out his hand further. "Alicia, come away."

"He put it in me." Alicia said slowly. "It hurt... I..."

"Alicia." Excalibur said quietly. "Please. Come away. You have got to come away and you have got to do it now."

"He... hurt me..." Alicia's voice turned hard as she looked at the human who was curling up on the floor now, gasping and moaning. "I..."

"Alicia." Excalibur said with a hint of sternness. "He is doomed, and so are you if you don't get away from him, right now." Indeed, Daniel's form was starting to glow green and the glow was brightening. "Alicia, please!" He snapped.

"I..." Alicia staggered forward, stumbling away from the now brightly glowing form on the floor. Daniels cries had faded to animalistic grunts of pain. Soon those would fade as well. When that happened... "X, help me!" She begged.

She was in reach! He grabbed her and pulled her close as he spun in place and activated his dash. In moments, they were back in the corridor that had been a warzone. But now, there was stillness. Nothing moved as Excalibur ran with Alicia clinging to him. He ran and ran until the rumble of an explosion behind him threw him into a wall. He rolled, careful to shield Alicia's still form with his own. Finally, the blast wave passed and he cautiously looked up. Nothing moved in the corridor he was lying in. Alicia lay, still as death.

"Alicia?" Excalibur asked softly. "Alicia?" He asked again when she did not respond. "_Alicia!_" He demanded, his heart in his mouth as he laid her out gently. She moaned and he smiled as he relaxed.

"Hurts..." Alicia said, her face still slick with tears.

"Let's get you home, Alicia." Excalibur said softly.

"Had the weirdest dream, X." Alicia said as he rose and lifted her carefully. "Dreamed I was caught by a nasty doc and turned into an Infested."

"Just a dream, Alicia." Excalibur said mildly as he carried her towards the detention center and the others. "You are Tenno. He could warp your mind, but he couldn't change you. He tried and it killed him. It's okay, Alicia. I have you."

"I knew you wouldn't leave me." Alicia said, her arms circling him. "But I am sorry X. I was sloppy."

"No, you weren't." Excalibur said mildly. "The trap was strong, but they were not expecting me. Oh, and Alicia?" She looked at him and he smiled under his helmet. "My name was Will."


	11. Chapter 11

**Three weeks later**

Excalibur walked through the small Tenno colony with only a trace of misgiving. He nodded to the guards who had been posted outside the medical facility and they nodded back. Both wore warframes, even here. Excalibur did not. The door opened and he stepped inside, only to pause as an irate voice sounded.

"...and I tell you I feel fine!" Alicia was speaking in a slow voice as if to a dimwitted child. "You cleaned the muck out of me, you cannot find any trace of the crap. So why am I still here?"

"Alicia." Excalibur said mildly as he entered the room she had been assigned. The other Tenno warrior wore a set of light robes. She sat on the bed, a nurse standing nearby with an stubborn look on his face. "Are you being a pain? Again?" He asked with a smile. She looked at Excalibur and her face fell. The nurse rolled his eyes and left the room.

"X... Uh, I mean Will... Uh... Whatever..." She sighed. She slumped in place. "I feel good. Jean and Li have both been released. What is wrong? Why won't they release me?"

"Alicia, you can call me whatever you want. I have been Excalibur so long that Will feels... wrong." Excalibur said gently, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her. "And, well... Li and Jean were not infected with the Technocyte virus. You were. There hasn't been a documented case of a Tenno being infected like this since the Great War. It was bad then and we lost so much knowledge..." Excalibur sighed. "Do you _blame_ them for being cautious?"

"No." Alicia said with a shiver. "I still dream about the table. About the needle." She hugged herself tight. "I feel..." Excalibur waited and Alicia sighed. "Physically I feel fine, but mentally? Emotionally? This medical facility gives me the creeps, and I _know_ it's not like the other."

"You are _not_ going to bounce back from this, Alicia." Excalibur said gently. "It took me years before I could fight again after my injuries. You know this. It won't be that long for you, but they want to be absolutely sure."

"I do." Alicia's voice was tiny. "I am just..." She broke off and shook her head. "Fighting is all I know."

"Me too." Excalibur said gently. "But you are not alone. Walk with me?" He asked as he stood. She rose and smoothed her robe.

"Have the Elders decided on what to do about Kori?" Alicia asked as they walked deeper into the facility. "I mean, it wasn't _her _choice."

"No." Excalibur said heavily. "The Code is clear, but as you say, there are mitigating circumstances. And..." He sighed as Alicia looked at him. "Are there enough of us _left_ for us to just execute her?"

"Are we getting to the point where females will be barred from field work? Forced to stay home and have babies?" Alicia asked, concerned. "I think about half the active warframes are females." She said with a frown.

"Probably a bit more than half." Excalibur said uneasily. "We don't want to start cloning, that is for sure. But the various factions extermination agendas have bit deep into our ranks." Alicia shared a shiver with him. Cloning was the route the Grinneer had taken. Speaking of... "How is Nika doing?"

"The backlash hit her hard." Alicia said quietly. "She is recovering. Want to talk to her?" Excalibur looked at her and she smiled. "I think she is in the exercise room. She wanted to work out."

"She didn't have enough muscles to begin with?" Excalibur asked, incredulous, only to flinch as Alicia swatted at him. "Hey!"

"She is nice." Alicia said with a solemn look as she started off. "I never thought I would say that about a Grinneer, but it is true. She and Jos and Brianna have been open, cooperative and very understanding. None of them have offered as much as a hint of violence."

"From what I understand..." Excalibur said softly as he paced her. "Brianna was trying to find a way to dampen the aggressiveness while keeping the core personalities intact." Alicia nodded. "How is Brianna doing?"

"Not well." Alicia said sadly. "She was kind to me. She and Nika and Jos were all kind to me. The others..." Alicia shook her head. "They knew what was going to happen to me. To some I was a POW, to others I was meat. I never saw Kori until you brought me back to the cells and we called for extraction."

"Yeah." Excalibur said with a sigh. They came to another doorway and paused as it opened. The exercise room had several occupants. The huge form of the female Grinneer was ensconced in one set of weight machines, pumping easily her own mass. She was focused on her workout though. The other three were on treadmills and nodded to Excalibur and Alicia. All four of them wore jumpsuits and all four wore small bracelets that served as medical monitors, tracking devices and if necessary, stunners.

"Alicia!" Kori smiled as she ran. "Excalibur, good to see you!"

"Kori." Alicia said with a smile as she stepped in. She waved as the other Tenno motioned to her treadmill and it slowed. "No, don't let us interrupt." She protested.

"I am done." Kori said with a smile as she stepped off the now slow treadmill and walked in circles for a moment to cool down. "Good to see you both. Any word?" Excalibur shook his head and Kori sighed. "The waiting is the worst."

"Yeah." Excalibur agreed. "Never liked it myself. How you doing?" He asked kindly.

"My dreams are strange." Kori said softly, her gaze going distant. "I don't know if it was the virus or my time away or what. But my head is a mess."

"I don't doubt it." Excalibur nodded. "I felt the same way and my own dreams were troubled for some time after I was healed." Kori bowed her head and Excalibur laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. Alicia laid a hand on her other shoulder. "Kori, it's okay. You are not alone." She smiled and covered their hands with her own before giving them a squeeze. He retracted his hand and Alicia did as well. "Are you still connected to Brianna, Jos and Nika?" He asked, curious.

"Not...really..." Kori said with a frown. "I still get...some things but... It's more emotions now than actual thoughts. And Brianna says that will fade in time. Daniel was the linchpin and with him gone..." Kori shrugged.

"With him gone, the bindings have gone as well." Brianna said as she finished her own run and stepped off the treadmill to walk to where Excalibur stood with Alicia and Kori. "I never thanked you." She said with a nod to Excalibur.

"For?" Excalibur asked, curious.

"For not killing me." Brianna said with a smile. "I had no chance against you. Heck, none of us did. You could have killed all of us without breaking a sweat."

"You were and are not my enemy, Brianna." Excalibur said with quiet conviction. "You confused the heck out of me, but I am not in the habit of killing people who do that." He said seriously. "How are you?"

"I...really don't know." Brianna said with a shiver. "I have good days and bad ones. The healers say I may be over the worst. I hope so. I really, really don't want to go nuts." Fear shone in her eyes, but then she shook her head. "The herbals they have me on help a great deal. Cleansing the virus from my system did as well. I don't know how many of my problems came from Daniel and how many were my own. It may take a while, but the healers here will help me find out." She smiled a bit forlornly. "Good news is that Nika and Jos won't regress any further than they have. They will be okay."

"I am glad." Excalibur said with a smile. Brianna looked at him and he shrugged. "I don't _like_ killing people. It's my job and I am good at it, but I don't like it."

"Of all the things I might have expected to hear from a Tenno..." A soft, incredulous voice came from behind them and the turned to see Nika had paused her workout to listen. "_That_ was not on the list." The Grinneer said, her face a mask of shock.

"Nika..." Excalibur said kindly. "You knew people who enjoyed killing." It wasn't a question. The former Grinneer nodded soberly. "We are taught, early on, that taking lives is necessary in our line of work. We are trained how to kill. With weapons, with our bare hands... We are trained _when_ to kill. And when not to." The male Tenno said calmly. Nika nodded, looking a bit confused. Excalibur paused. "You talked with Kori, yes?" Kori shook her head as Excalibur looked at her.

"I wasn't the most sociable of beings." Kori said with a grimace. "Matter of fact, besides the mental link I _avoided_ contact with everyone I could. Unless I was called for something, like when your team landed... I stayed in the vents for the most part. Alone." Excalibur put his hand back on Kori's shoulder and she leaned into his touch gratefully. "I felt so dirty... I felt so wrong."

"It's all right, Kori." Alicia said gently. "It's over."

"Yeah." Kori smiled a bit forlornly but then nodded to Nika. "Anyway, Nika... Tenno have to be in control at all times, Nika. We are trained how to kill, how to use anything and everything at our disposal to destroy our enemies. But we are also taught that killing is, at heart, a very bad thing. Every life we cut short lessens us."

"Could you..." Brianna started to ask, then broke off. "No, no I don't want to know." Excalibur looked at her and she swallowed heavily. "You seem less dangerous without your warframes. But you are not, are you?" Excalibur shook his head.

"A warframe is a tool." Excalibur said quietly. "A sword is a tool. A pistol is a tool. The only real weapon..." He pointed to his head. "...is the one that resides here."

"I see." Nika said in the silence that fell. Then she grimaced a little. "You are still scary."

"You have nothing to fear from me, Nika." Excalibur said kindly. "As I say, you are not my enemy. Have you thought on what to do now?"

"We want to stay with Brianna." Jos said as he finished his run. Outside of his space suit and boxy Corpus helmet, he was a tanned and fit young man with blonde hair and hazel eyes. "We were her lab assistants and we enjoyed it." Nika nodded agreement and Brianna blushed a bit.

"Well..." Alicia nodded soberly. "I know of a few labs that could use more hands, especially trained ones."

"Tenno have labs?" Brianna asked, incredulous. Alicia looked at her and did not respond. Brianna winced and then nodded. "Never mind, you can't tell me. I understand the secrecy but it does get to be a bit much sometimes."

"It is what we are, Brianna." Excalibur replied, his tone polite, but distant. Kori and Alicia nodded agreement. "I do have one question, Kori."

"Go ahead." Kori said quietly as she lay down and started doing crunchs. Alicia knelt down to hold her sister's feet and Kori smiled at her.

"Where did you find the glaive?" Excalibur had an odd catch to his voice. Kori paused in mid sit-up and looked at him. "I didn't use it in the battle and actually forgot all about it until I got back and was debriefed. The Elders were startled by it."

"Startled?" Kori asked, incredulous. "It's a glaive! Tenno have used them for centuries." She started her crunches again.

"That one is _very_ old, Kori." Excalibur said with a shrug. "And no glaive I have ever seen had initials carved on it." Everyone was staring at him now and he shrugged again. "The Elders are curious. So am I."

"I found it." Nika said slowly. Excalibur looked at her and she sighed. "It was just after I woke up. After Brianna 'adjusted' me, made me sane." She smiled at Brianna. "I ran off to try and clear my head. I was...very confused."

"I bet." Excalibur said kindly. "Where did you find it?"

"It was lying on an odd pedestal of sorts." Nika said, her brow furrowing in thought as she pulled back memories. "It was deployed, the blades out." The former Grinneer said slowly. "But it was just lying there. I knew it was a Tenno weapon, so I was very careful when I picked it up. But the moment I did, it retracted. I dropped it." She said with a wince. "Didn't seem to hurt it. I gave it to Kori, I wanted to be her friend." She paused as he bracelet beeped. "Lunchtime? Already?"

"Keeping to a schedule will help the healers determine your mental state, Nika." Brianna said with a smile as the huge Grinneer rose from her seat. "They want to be sure." She and Jos started off. "Coming?" She asked Kori who nodded.

"In a sec." Kori said slowly. "Excalibur?" She asked. "Why the fuss?" She said with a shrug. "It's a glaive. Not my preferred weapon."

"I didn't want to say in front of them..." Excalibur said with a sigh. Alicia and Kori both stared at him and he shrugged. "The initials on the glaive were 'H T'." Alicia's eyes went wide and that and Kori suddenly looked pale. "Yeah."

"Excalibur..." Kori said, her voice taut. "Are you saying that was _Haydon Tenno_'s glaive...?"

"We don't know." Excalibur said calmly. "But... he _did_ use a glaive. According to the legend, it disappeared when he did."

"Oh boy." Kori said with a wince. Then she froze in place. Excalibur and Alicia both looked at her and she paled, then a slow tear trickled down from one eye. "I... I am sorry..." Excalibur and Alicia both stiffened at her tone. "The Elders have decided. The Lotus has decreed my death..."

"Lotus, she had no choice!" Excalibur said firmly. "It wasn't her fault _or_ her responsibility. She wasn't in control of her actions."

_She betrayed us._ The female voice was clear and cold. _The elders have decided._ _Do your duty._

"No! She didn't have a choice!" Alicia protested, but was drawing away. "Oh, Kori... I am sorry."

"My duty." Excalibur said slowly. "You really want _me_ to do this?" He asked, seeking clarification.

_Do your duty, Tenno._ The Lotus pressed.

"Very well." Excalibur said with a calm he suddenly didn't feel. "I challenge the ruling of this court." Alicia and Kori spun to stare at him. "I was taught, by the Tenno, that I had a duty to the truth. A duty to uphold the honor of the Tenno. This is _not_ honorable, so I challenge this ruling. You would punish my sister for being taken against her will and forced to do horrible things. That is wrong." He said with a snarl.

"Excalibur..." Kori said, face white. "No..."

_You challenge._ The Lotus sounded...disturbed. _Name your challenge._

"Parkour." Excalibur said with a nod. "I will not kill my kin. Kori is still kin." He bowed formally to Kori who stood petrified.

"I... I can't let you do this, Excalibur." Kori said with a wince. "If you fail, _your_ life is forfeit. We... They need you. Lotus, you can't let him do this!" But the Lotus did not respond.

"Kori." Excalibur said softly. "There is a clear miscarriage of justice here. I will not fail. Lotus, your answer?"

_Accepted._ The female voice that guided the Tenno replied coldly. _Prepare yourself, your challenge will be laid out within the hour._

Excalibur nodded. He bowed low to Kori and then strode from the room before either female could speak. He had to prepare himself. He heard Kori start to cry behind him, but he ignored it. He had to do his duty and in this case, his duty was to his kin.


	12. Chapter 12

**An hour later**

Excalibur blurred into being on the challenge course into the middle of a heated discussion. Alicia was standing, talking to another Tenno who wore a Rhino warframe. All around, other Tenno were standing, talking. Some loud, some quietly, but all became silent as he appeared. Challenges were taken in the same virtual reality training simulations that all Tenno used. The one major difference, was that if Tenno failed challenges in the normal settings, all that happened was the Lotus made snarky comments. Here? He could and would die if he failed. He didn't care.

"Excalibur." The Rhino said as he turned to scrutinize Excalibur.

"Percival." Excalibur said formally. He wore his Prime warframe. He bore no weapons but the glaive attached to his forearm. Percival was one of the eldest living Tenno who still fought, a legend in his own right. The Scindo at his back had cleaved untold thousands of enemies.

"Have you _lost_ your mind?" Percival demanded. "Do you have _any_ idea what this is going to do? Win or lose?" Excalibur nodded silently and Percival sighed. When he spoke again, it was sad. "I was glad to see Kori again, even under the circumstances. But Excalibur..." The elder Tenno said slowly. "We are Tenno. We follow orders."

"I couldn't do it, Percival." Excalibur said softly. "The Lotus told me to kill Kori and... She is guilty." Excalibur shook his head. "She doesn't deny that. None of us deny that. But..." He paused, marshalling his thoughts. "Tenno are not forces of justice, I know that. We are weapons. Point us at targets and pull the trigger. But we are more than that."

"Why this quibbling?" The other Tenno demanded. That was one thing Excalibur had always liked about Percival. He didn't beat around the bush. "She broke with the Code. She taught humans -infested humans at that- about Orokin technology." A mutter went around the area as other Tenno turned to look at the pair. Alicia stood nearby, one of the few Tenno not in warframes. It made her anxious look easy to see.

"She didn't have a choice." Excalibur said mildly.

"It was still an order. Was it affection?" Percival asked, shaking his head. "She was your trainer and all..." The Rhino warframe stiffened in place as Excalibur raised a hand.

"I don't remember her, Percival." Excalibur said with a shake of his head. Percival went still at that and most of the other Tenno stiffened as well. He raised his voice to include all the now silent Tenno around them. "I am doing this because it is the right thing to do. We are Tenno, yes. Living weapons, yes. We serve, it is what we do, what we are." He bowed his head and every Tenno in the area did likewise. "We have differing styles, differing opinions, but in the end, we are Tenno."

"You were given an order, Tenno." Percival said simply. "Kori accepted her death. Why can't you?"

"Pragmatism, brother." Excalibur said simply. "Do we have _enough_ kin _left_ to execute any who stray? She was not in control of her actions. She fought, as hard as any of us would have, but no one can resist that kind of thing forever and suicide was denied her. Any of us could have been her." A pin dropping would have sounded like a grenade in the silence that fell. "I have been meditating and I believe I know where my sometime lack of focus comes from. Why I have been censured on occasion for deviating from my assigned missions. " Percival nodded and Excalibur continued. "She says she ordered me to flee, to leave her. I don't remember that. I wonder..." Excalibur paused, thinking hard. "Is that why I refuse to leave kin behind when I can possibly help them?" He asked nobody. "We all know the mission comes first. But we are still thinking, sentient beings." Excalibur said softly. "We think, we feel..." He shook himself. "I know this is going to cause problems Percival, but I could _not_ kill her, and I could _not_ stand aside."

"No." Percival said sadly. "No, you couldn't, could you? Oh, Excalibur..." The Rhino laid a huge hand on Excalibur's armored shoulder. "Don't lose." The elder Tenno said sharply. His hand fell and he moved away. Alicia stepped up, her face intent.

"Don't say it, Alicia." Excalibur said quietly.

"Undo your helm." Alicia said just as quietly. "I want to see your face."

"Alicia..." Excalibur sighed as she crossed her arms and stood, a rock of quiet stubbornness. He opened his gold chased visor. "Silly female... I..." He broke off as she jumped forward, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, hard. He stood, petrified as she hugged him tight enough to be felt even through the warframe. Finally, she stepped back, tears starting to fall.

"Not silly at all." Alicia said sadly. "I love you, Excalibur. Come back to me."

She stepped back into the crowd of silent Tenno who made way for her. She made her way to the back of the group and stood alone, but only for an instant. An Ember stepped to her side and held Alicia as she shuddered. But they were both looking at Excalibur and he... He didn't know what to do. Finally, he bowed, a full kowtow, to Alicia. He closed his helmet before he said anything stupid. Then he turned and made his way towards a white sphere that hovered nearby.

"Excalibur ready." Excalibur said formally.

"You choose that weapon?" The voice of the Lotus came from nowhere and everywhere.

"I do." Excalibur said simply. The glaive wasn't his personal favorite, but it _did_ have a number of advantages. Not the least of which was that he could throw it.

"This will be a run through a Parkour obstacle course." The Lotus said calmly. "Your mission is to get to the end." Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his helmet. That was too easy. As if reading his thoughts, which she probably had, the Lotus continued. "There will be other Tenno on the course. Their mission is to stop you."

"They will be using lethal force?" Excalibur asked. This was going to be more difficult. _Much_ more difficult.

"Yes." The Lotus' voice was cool.

"I do not wish to slay kin." Excalibur said uneasily. "That is _why_ I am doing this."

"The settings for your weapon have been modified for this simulation." The Lotus replied. "Your weapon can stagger the others, but not injure or kill. Their settings are such that no matter what you do, you cannot kill them. Your kinetic threshold has been significantly lowered. Their weapons can kill you, and a fall can kill you. Either sufficient injury or too much time elapsed will forfeit the simulation and your life."

"Understood." Excalibur said quietly.

"One final time, Tenno." The Lotus sounded...unsure. A first in his experience. "Retract your challenge and do your duty."

"I will not kill my sister for something that was not her fault. Your order is _wrong_." Excalibur said sharply. "But... One thing." The Lotus did not speak, but did not order him to begun so Excalibur took a chance. "Even if I fall, I ask that you reexamine the case. There are always other choices. Even for Tenno, Lotus."

_Begin._ The voice in his head spoke and he threw the glaive to hit the sphere. A dazzling wall of energy appeared in front of him and he ran at it, willing himself to greater speed. The glaive did as designed, it came back to his hand even as he ran.

He hit the wall and ran up it, his boot soles finding purchase even on the slick surface and his speed climbing as he pushed his warframe to it's limits. Something warned him as he neared the top and he threw himself up and over, just in time to avoid an arrow that would have transfixed him. He didn't bother to look for the shooter, likely that Tenno was a _long_ ways away, well out of glaive range. Instead, he ran on. The path between the virtual columns was narrow, and he scowled under his helmet, alternating running on one side of it, then the other. He was rewarded by another arrow sparking off the path nearby instead of impaling him. He saw where it had come from though and moved to limit his exposure to the sniper with the bow. He darted from cover to cover and then he saw another wall ahead. Open area. No cover.

Nothing for it, he had to get through. He hit his dash and was running at full tilt even before the power let him go. Movement to his side made him dodge without even thinking before he had even seen what was happening. A Mag with a Strun shotgun had stepped out of a hidden alcove and leveled her weapon at him. He was sliding to the side as the glaive left his hand, aimed not at her head but at her legs. A deafening roar heralded the shotgun firing, but nothing hit him and a muffled curse told him that the opposing Tenno was incapacitated for a moment. Just long enough. He ran up the wall lightly and sped on, aware that the other Tenno was in pursuit, but falling behind. Shotguns didn't have a great deal of range -well except the Hek and she wasn't carrying one- so he was relatively safe from that. But the archer was still out there. He had modified this warframe to be lighter and faster, to give more stamina reserves at the expense of damage capability and protection. Something grabbed him and he snarled as he found himself flying backwards. The Mag had pulled him!

Excalibur twisted in midair, landing on his feet instead of his backside and slamming bodily into the Mag as she tried to go for a kill shot with her sword. He parried her attacks for a moment. She was good, but nowhere near his class. His weapon was shorter, but he was far faster than she was. Then he blanched as a long metal rod suddenly appeared sticking out of the Mag's chest. An arrow! She froze and looked down at it.

"This... This isn't right..." The Mag said slowly, then fell to crumple in a heap. Excalibur caught her and eased her to the ground.

"_No!_" An anguished scream sounded from nearby as a Frost frame appeared, a Paris in hand. "I didn't... No!"

"She is alive!" Excalibur snapped. "Kill me or help her! I took all my first aid mods out to lighten my frame! Choose, Tenno!" Excalibur commanded.

"It... It shouldn't have hurt her..." The Frost said as he stepped up, a green mist coming from his outstretched hand to surround the fallen Mag. Excalibur shook his head as he took hold of the arrow.

"This is going to hurt, sister." Excalibur said quietly. "I have to get it out." The Mag nodded a little and Excalibur took a deep breath, then with a yank, pulled the long metal rod completely from the fallen Tenno's body. She screamed and then went limp.

"Sina, no... This is a virtual simulation." The Frost was babbling as he continued to pour green healing mist onto his fallen sister. "It _shouldn't_ have hurt her! Why hasn't she exited?"

"Someone is cheating." Excalibur snapped. "Stay with her?" The Frost looked at him and Excalibur sighed. "Look, I have no quarrel with you or _any_ of my kin. I saw a clear miscarriage of justice. Was I right, was I wrong? I don't know. But this I _do_ know. Kori was not in her right mind, she was being controlled. Judging her actions as if she was in complete control of herself is _wrong_."

"I am Tenno." The Frost said sadly, kneeling beside the still form of the Mag. "I follow orders."

"Something is _very_ wrong here, Tenno. For your arrow to hurt her, the safeties must be really messed up. " Excalibur said slowly. "I need to finish. Are you going to put an arrow in my back the moment I turn around?" In answer the Frost threw the Paris away and Excalibur sighed. "If _any_ of your trainers saw you mistreating your weapon like that, you would be on punishment details for a year!." He laughed sourly as the Frost jerked guiltily. "What happens in the simulation, _stays_ in the simulation. Stay with her." He said, patting the unconscious Mag on the arm. "We may all be stuck in here until I finish or die."

"Be quick." The Frost said sadly. "I will stay with her. Excalibur..."

"Don't." Excalibur said sharply. "I know there are other Tenno in here. Can you warn them that the safeties may be offline for _everyone_, not just me?"

"I will." The Frost said quietly. "And... for what it is worth... I am sorry."

"Don't be."Excalibur said with a shrug as he rose to continue. "We all have to choose how we interpret our duty. We are not machines, we are Tenno."

"We are Tenno." The Frost replied quietly as Excalibur started off.

_**What**__ is going on? Lotus? Are you there?_ Excalibur asked in his mind. There was no response.


	13. Chapter 13

**Finishings**

Excalibur ran on. Every so often he saw Tenno nearby, but all were kneeling, waiting. He nodded to each and they nodded back. Orders might be orders, but with someone playing some kind of game with the settings of the virtual environment, he really didn't want to fight. Too much chance to kill one of his kin. He didn't want that and apparently none of them wanted to kill him badly enough to try with the settings messed up. Tenno knew the dangers in virtual worlds. They trained in this kind of setting for as long as they lived.

Virtual simulations were used by Tenno of all ranks. Indeed, it simply made sense for tests that might involve weapons fire to be held virtual. It saved repair bills for one thing. For another, virtual environments could be set up however the user wished. Ordinarily, the settings of said simulations guaranteed that the user would been no danger no matter what they did. Excalibur had taken a wrong step himself in more than one simulation and wound up falling into space. That had been...unpleasant, but not lethal. Now, though the setting had been tampered with even beyond the Lotus altering the safety parameters for his challenge. He should have been the only one in danger, but apparently, something else had happened. He kept trying to contact the Lotus but there was no reply. He knew he was in grave danger but had no idea why. Why wasn't the Lotus responding? That wasn't right. The Lotus had always been there. From the moment he had woken, she had been there, always with an answer, if not always the answer he wanted. So... What?

He passed another sitting Tenno, this one wearing a Volt warframe, and ran up another wall, nodding to the sitting Tenno as he did. The Volt nodded back silently. He made the top of the run and skidded over the lip. But then... He paused as he saw something that did not fit the simulation ahead of him. A low table, made of what looked like wood! Wood? Wood was incredibly rare and priceless. The few antiques like the table he saw in front of him were literally worth more than planetoids since most of the trees on Earth had perished in the many cataclysms that had befallen the world. But it was what was sitting ON the table that had Excalibur stop in mid stride.

It was a sword. And not just ANY sword. HIS sword. His Skana Prime. Which was flatly impossible. That sword was locked in the arsenal on his ship.

"What the hell?" Excalibur said slowly as he stepped closer to the table, the glaive ready in hand. "This... No..." He shook his head and stepped back. He spun in place as a voice sounded from nearby.

"It's your sword, Excalibur." A white armored form appeared out of nowhere. Jean's Ash warframe was white immaculate as always. "Pick it up." The other Tenno drew his Skana.

"Jean?" Excalibur asked slowly. Then he sighed. "You were in my systems. You got the sword's specs." Jean nodded silently. Excalibur stiffened. Jean had few peers when it came to hacking computer systems. Even a virtual simulation was, at heart, a computer program. "Did you do this?" Excalibur asked with a touch of heat, waving to indicate the simulation. Jean nodded again and Excalibur nearly exploded. "WHY?" He demanded.

"You deserve a fair fight, Brother." Jean said, not moving.

"WHAT?" Excalibur snapped. "Jean, this isn't a fight! This is a challenge! I couldn't kill Kori. Not like that."

"I know." Jean said sadly. "I talked with her a bit while we waited for evac. You were tending Alicia."

"I was distracted." Excalibur said slowly. "Kori was alive. You and Li were coming around, Alicia was a mess. She needed my help more than you did."

"I know." Jean said, shaking his head. "I am not arguing that. Kori begged me to kill her and I couldn't. She begged Li and _Li_ couldn't." Excalibur nodded soberly.

"It wasn't her fault." Excalibur said softly. "Any one of us could have fallen into that madman's trap. And you know the limits of our training as well as I do. If we can't suicide, we can't escape and it is only a matter of time until we break." Jean nodded. "She is not in her right mind and won't be for a long, long time. Judging her by her actions as if she was in complete control of herself is heartless and wrong." Excalibur said sourly. "I expected better of the Elders."

"You can't really blame them." Jean said easily, still not moving. "This kind of thing hasn't happened to Tenno since the Great War. At that time, yes, the penalty for it was death."

"There was rarely _time_ for anything else." Excalibur agreed with a sigh. "But to just condemn her like that..." He shook his head. "Don't tell me _you_ think it was right." He said sourly.

"You were given an order." Jean said simply. "You refused to obey it."

"It's not that simple." Excalibur snapped. "Yes, I was told to do my duty. My duty..." He said, looking away from the other Tenno. He shook his head. "My duty was always to kin first, mission second. You know this." Jean nodded. "Stand aside." Excalibur declared.

"I can't do that, Excalibur." Jean said sadly, moving to block the path. "My orders are to stop you. I was supposed to ambush you here. Put an arrow in you before you knew I was here."

"Why didn't you?" Excalibur asked softly. He knew Jean's abilities. Excalibur wouldn't have had a chance. Even blade to blade, Excalibur gave himself even odds. Jean was good. Not flashy or showy, but good.

"Because you deserve a fair fight." Jean said gently. "Because you are a better man than I am. A better Tenno."

"No I am not. I won't fight you, Jean." Excalibur declared, striding to pass the other Tenno, only to pause as Jean raised his sword into a ready position and blocked his way. "Will you cut me down if I do not resist?" Excalibur asked softly. "Brother?"

"You..." Jean swore softly. "Don't make me do this." The other Tenno begged. "Fight me."

"I won't fight you." Excalibur said simply. "Just like I won't kill Kori. It wouldn't be honorable. I swore to do my challenge. Not fight. I will _not_ kill my kin." He said quietly, but with force.

"I can't let you go, Excalibur." Jean said sadly. "I am sorry, brother." He raised his sword, but paused as Excalibur nodded.

"Before you strike..." Excalibur said with quiet certitude. "One of our sisters was injured by an arrow fired at me by a brother." Jean froze and Excalibur continued. "She lived when I left her. Can you get help for her?"

"Until the challenge is done, Excalibur..." Jean said heavily. "We are in com blackout. I..." Jean jerked and then lowered his sword. "I want to help... But... I can't let you pass."

"Jean, please..." Excalibur said slowly. "Save our sister. I don't know how long Cina can hold on."

"Maricina?" Jean said slowly. "I... No." He jerked and then raised his sword again. "I can't let you pass."

"I see." Excalibur said slowly. "I know what Kori would tell me to do." Excalibur sighed and then slowly bent and laid the glaive he still held on the ground. The Ash warframe seemed to stare at him, frozen. "Do me a favor?" Excalibur asked conversationally.

"Depends on what it is." Jean said softly.

"Tell Alicia, I am sorry and I will wait for her." Excalibur said with a sigh as he turned towards the sheer drop off. The path he had followed up the cliff was nearby, but he ignored it, staring out into the blankness of cyberspace.

"_Excalibur!_" Jean protested. "No! Stop! This isn't right!"

"Right and wrong doesn't come into it, Brother." Excalibur said sadly. "My duty is to my kin. I cannot save Kori. Maybe I can save Cina." He felt rather than saw the Ash start forward, but then he was in motion, running towards the drop and the endless abyss.

"_No!_" Jean screamed as Excalibur ran lightly over the edge of the cliff and fell like a rock.

* * *

"That... was _dumb_..."

The male voice was unfamiliar. Excalibur paused. What the? He had jumped. The safety interlocks had been disengaged. It had to have killed him. So who the hell was talking to him? He was lying on something hard, but giving. It didn't feel like anything Excalibur had ever laid on before. Not metal, not a mattress. It felt...

"Might as well open your eyes, boy." The male voice said sourly. "I know you are awake."

Excalibur opened his eyes and froze. He was lying on...? WHAT was he lying on? It was green! But... it was alive? He looked around. This was nothing like any simulation he had ever been in. The surface he was lying on seemed to be composed of millions of small green things. Was this grass? He had read about it sure, but he never seen it or thought he ever would. He stared at the carpet of green and then his attention was drawn to where a figure stood nearby. The...human wore Tenno style armor, but it..wasn't. It was a warframe, but... It wasn't. It held a glaive but no other weapons. What looked like a holster was on one hip, but the pistol in it was unclear. Excalibur stiffened and then froze as the man laughed.

"Gonna lie there all day, boy?" The man asked with a snort.

"Where am I?" Excalibur asked softly.

"You are exactly nowhere." The man replied evenly.

"Nowhere?" Excalibur asked incredulously. Was this man making fun of him? "And who are you?"

"Nobody." The man said equably.

"I am having a conversation with nobody at nowhere." Excalibur said and then sighed. "Great. My mind is playing tricks on me. Well, how long until I hit bottom?"

"You did." The man said, his voice turning kind.

"So I am dead?" Excalibur asked incredulously. "This is _not_ what I expected for an afterlife."

"No, you are not dead." The man replied with a laugh. "Virtual world, virtual rules, remember? Some can be broken, other bent?" He looked a question at Excalibur who nodded, manifestly against his will. That was one of the first lessons that Tenno learned about virtual worlds. For some weird reason they called it the Matrix Codex. "Time is one of those rules, Excalibur." The recumbent Tenno froze.

"How do you know my name?" Excalibur asked slowly.

"I like to keep tabs on things." The man said with a nod. "The more things change, the more they stay the same. Always someone needs fighting done and always the Tenno answer." He sounded lost and sad for a moment.

"Am I your prisoner?" Excalibur asked slowly, trying to figure this out. It was weird. But now he could see the edges of the virtual world. He had never seen a simulation so detailed before however. This one actually felt as if he was lying on grass. He could smell it! But that was impossible, he had never smelled grass before, had he?

"No." The man said with a shake of his head. "Just wanted to make sure you were intact. As soon as you can, you are free to go."

"You are not making any sense." Excalibur snapped. "I am in a virtual simulation I have never seen before, at your mercy and I am _not_ your prisoner?" He glared at other but then stiffened as the weapon in the man's hand vanished.

"You are not my prisoner, boy." The man said gently. "And for what it is worth, well done."

"What?" Excalibur asked, confused.

"Even before you started your challenge, the Elders started rethinking their stupid judgment of poor Kori." The man said with a grimace. "Bunch of hidebound fossils." He snapped.

"You insult the leaders of my people." Excalibur said in a quiet tone.

"What?" The man actually snarled. "I can't say someone is being stupid when they are? Sheesh..." The man said with a snort. "I am a lot of things, boy. Politically correct is _not_ one of them. I see someone doing something stupid and I am going to say it's stupid. I have seen too many friends and kin lost because people were too busy looking for ways to keep from looking stupid to look where they were going."

_Kin?_ Excalibur froze. "Who are you?" He asked slowly.

"That would be telling." The man said with a shrug. "And you have to go now."

"I... Wait..." Excalibur said slowly. Did he know this man? Did he know... Everything was fading. Or he was.

"It's all right, Excalibur." The man in almost Tenno armor said gently. "You are doing fine. Be well, my descendant." Then he vanished,

"Descen-?" Excalibur stiffened. _Who? No! it can't be!_ He tried to speak, to plead, but the man was gone and darkness rose up to grab him. "Wait! I have...so... many..." He lost consciousness before he could speak any of his questions.

* * *

Alicia was crying. He hated hearing her cry. A soft murmur of sound around him spoke of medical machinery. Excalibur opened his eyes and regretted it.

"Ow..." He groaned and a gasp sounded nearby. Alicia's voice came, hesitant.

"X... Excalibur...?" She asked, her tone cautious.

"Who _else_ would it be?" Excalibur asked sourly. Then he stiffened. "Dang it. I failed... Oh Kori, I am sorry."

"So am I." An impossible voice sounded from nearby. _Kori!_ Excalibur's eye snapped open and there she was. She was sitting, holding Alicia who had obviously been crying for some time to judge by the tears that streaked her face. Kori smiled gently at him. "Good morning."

"Kori... I..." Excalibur tried to shake his head, but it wouldn't move. "What the-?" Alicia rose quickl and came to his bedside. He looked around and saw a lot of medical machinery. He was no doc, no med tech, but it looked extensive. "What happened?"

"We lost you." Alicia said, her eyes fearful. "We lost you. Your body was empty. No one could find you in the virtual world when the Lotus finally managed to break down the walls that Jean had built. He said... He said you jumped... he was just sitting there staring at the edge of the cliff. He said you jumped." She was crying again.

"I had to help Cina..." Excalibur said fearfully. Alicia took his hand and gave it a squeeze. He froze. He had barely felt it.

"Maricina is hurt." Alicia said sadly. "The neural backlash from her injury was intense, but they say she will make a full recovery in time."

"I..." Excalibur swallowed and spoke evenly. "Kori? What about you?"

"My case is in review." Kori said, eyes downcast. "I want to die. But no one seems to want to kill me. And they watch me too closely for me to suicide." She shuffled a bit.

"You are a mess, Kori." Excalibur said gently. "Treating you as if you were in your right mind is wrong. Alicia?" He asked as Alicia bent down to kiss his cheek.

"I lost you and somehow I got you back." Alicia said in a diamond hard tone. "I am not leaving you again." He looked at her and she shook her head. "You are not going to ask, are you? Always others, you silly, silly Tenno." The woman who loved him scowled. "I love you, but you are _so_ infuriating sometimes!" Excalibur took a deep breath and spoke softly.

"What happened to me, Alicia?" Excalibur asked slowly and carefully. "I jumped, I remember that. Then... I was..." He paused. What had he been about to say? He didn't remember. Just an odd smell. Not bad, just... different. Grass? He had never smelled grass, had he? He tried to shake his head and it moved a little. "How bad?"

"Bad." Alicia said sadly. "Excalibur...The neural damage was...extreme." She swallowed heavily. "They couldn't find you. It _should_ have tossed you into a limbo. The Lotus didn't _want_ to kill you, just make you fail. Jean messed everything up."

"He thought he was obeying orders." Excalibur said mildly. "He didn't understand. I don't really understand. But I know now I was played."

"What?" Kori and Alicia asked in unison.

"Look." Excalibur said slowly. "We don't have _enough_ Tenno to go around executing them for things out of their control. The Elders were scared. I don't blame them." The man said as both females exclaimed. "The threat of Okorin technology in the hands of madmen is _not_ to be taken lightly. But punishing the pawns of said mad men is wrong. And that was what it was, they wanted to punish _you_, Kori, for scaring them. For reminding them all of the horrors of the Great Plague."

"I don't get it." Kori said softly. "I want to die. Why stop them?"

"You don't want to _die_, Kori." Excalibur said sharply. "You want the _pain_ to stop. You want the _dreams_ to stop." She stared at him, her face ashen. "I know. I went through the exact same thing, Kori. I recovered. So can you." She looked at him and then crumpled. Alicia caught her, holding her as Kori sobbed. "Oh Kori... It's okay..." Excalibur said gently. "It will be okay..."

A female nurse entered the room, saw Kori and immediately took charge. She pulled ablanket from a cupboard and laid it around the sobbing woman before extricating her from Alicia.

"There now, Kori dear..." The elder female said with a gentle smile. "It's all right. Let's get you back to your room. Your next treatment is in twenty minutes." Alicia let Kori go and the nurse steered the still sobbing Tenno from the room. Alicia looked at the door as it closed and then at Excalibur.

"How long...?" She said and then broke off.

"I still get dark thoughts even today, Alicia." Excalibur said sadly. "It hasn't gone way. I don't think it will. But I can handle it."

"So what you did in the virtual world was _not_ suicide?" Alicia was clearly having difficulty with that. "You threw yourself off a cliff!"

"I couldn't fight Jean, Alicia." Excalibur said slowly. "Cina was dying. He wouldn't let me pass. I..." He sighed. "I didn't want to, Alicia. I knew it would hurt you. I wasn't being selfish. I couldn't save Kori without killing Jean."

"So you did your duty to your kin..." Alicia said in a painfully neutral voice. Excalibur nodded a little. "You are crazy, Tenno." She leaned down and kissed him. "But I love you anyway."

"Alicia..." Excalibur said softly. "I don't know how i feel about you. I don't know... I never..." He broke off as she laid a finger across his mouth.

"You have a lot of recovering to do." Alicia said as she lay down beside him on the bed, her arms going around him careful to avoid the tubes and wires. "But I am here. And we will learn together. Maybe this will fade in time. Maybe not. I have never felt like this with anyone else, Excalibur."

"Well." Excalibur smiled a bit as he managed to move one arm to lie across her. "I look forward to the training you have to give me."

"You are one of a kind, X." Alicia said as she laid her arm over his. "And thank goodness. You are all mine!"

Neither of them noticed a small circular device that was lying on a shelf nearby start to glow. The glaive wavered and then vanished. A shadow in the corner resolved into a form in armor that looked almost like a warframe.

_Good luck, kids._ Haydon Tenno wore a smile as he too vanished.


End file.
